Ministry of Health Appoints Veterinarian to Head Brazilian Immunization Program

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The interim Minister of Health, General Eduardo Pazuello, appointed veterinarian Lauricio Monteiro Cruz to coordinate the National Immunization Program, according to the publication in the Federal Gazette on Friday, August 28th.

The department is regarded as strategic for the next steps in the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic in the country after the approval of the vaccine.

The veterinarian is president of the Regional Council of Veterinary Medicine of the Federal District and, according to his résumé, he is a specialist in animal health and worked as a legal expert in nursing at the Federal District Court of Justice.

The appointment was criticized by the ex-Secretary of Health Regulations under the Jair Bolsonaro government, Wanderson Oliveira.

“I was secretary, general coordinator and senior official for years. I have never heard of and never witnessed this person in any activity of the National Immunization Program. Never. I don’t know him at all,” he wrote in a WhatsApp group.

“He’s going to take Marcelo Wada’s position, a career civil servant and one of the most competent and thorough professionals I know,” he added.

The staff positions in the Ministry of Health have undergone unprecedented changes since the appointment of Pazuello as interim Minister, after the resignation of Nelson Teich, who remained in office only one month.

The general has been criticized for replacing senior officials and long term career staff in the Ministry with military personnel having no experience in the positions to which they were assigned.

Source: Veja