Bolsonaro eyes health minister swap as Brazil’s outbreak worsens, sources say

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is weighing candidates to replace Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello, according to people familiar with the matter, preparing to appoint the fourth person in a year in that role as COVID-19 cases rage out of control.

Following the most deadly week in Brazil since the coronavirus pandemic began a year ago, Pazuello’s job appears to be on the line even though the government, in a statement, denied that he has turned in his resignation.

More than 279,000 people in Brazil have died in the worsening pandemic.

Bolsonaro met on Sunday with Ludhmila Hajjar, a doctor who has been at the forefront of treatment and research into fighting COVID-19.

The country’s leading newspapers, however, are reporting that she and the president did not agree on how to confront the pandemic and she is expected to turn down the offer.

The Poder360 news portal said there could be a second meeting on Monday with Hajjar, who has publicly criticized the government’s COVID-19 strategy and contradicted Bolsonaro’s insistence on the use of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that is unproven as a COVID-19 treatment, to treat coronavirus patients.

“The Health Ministry informs that Minister Eduardo Pazuello continues heading the portfolio, dedicated to the measures against the pandemic,” the government said late on Sunday, in response to a report by O Globo that he had resigned.

The statement also denied he had any health issues.

Pazuello, an active duty Army general with no medical degree, has been criticized for lacking medical knowledge and toeing Bolsonaro’s line on the use of hydroxychloroquine as well as opposing lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus.

Pazuello’s two predecessors resigned in roughly the span of a month last year, in part because as physicians they would not fully endorse treating patients with hydroxychloroquine.

Pazuello expanded access to hydroxychloroquine and allowed it to be prescribed to virtually anyone testing positive for the novel coronavirus.

His failure to secure timely supplies of vaccines for the country has led to calls for an inquiry in Congress, while the Supreme Court is investigating his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the northern city of Manaus that ran out of oxygen.

Brazil has vaccinated too few people and the result has been “catastrophic,” Hajjar said in a recent interview.

“Brazil is doing everything wrong in this pandemic and it is now paying the price,” she told Sao Paulo newspaper Opçao.