Brazil COVID-19 inquiry told of Bolsonaro's blind faith in chloroquine
May 4, 2021
4:01 PM CDT
Americas
Maria Marcello
3 minute read
Brazil's former health minister told a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday that President Jair Bolsonaro's right-wing government knew full well that the treatment they were advocating for COVID-19 patients had no scientific basis.
Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who was fired last April by Bolsonaro for not agreeing to push the malaria drug chloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment, testified before a parliamentary inquiry into the handling of the pandemic that has killed more than 408,000 Brazilians.
The Senate investigation is expected to hurt the president politically 17 months ahead of elections by showing the country that his opposition to lockdowns and social distancing measures, his failure to secure vaccines and the touting of unproven treatments deepened the crisis Brazil is now in.
"I warned Bolsonaro systematically of the consequences of not adopting the recommendations of science to fight COVID-19," Mandetta told the commission.
The minister said he was called to a cabinet meeting with the president, where there was a plan to change the official indications for use of the old anti-malaria drug to say it could be prescribed for COVID-19.
More:
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-covid-19-inquiry-told-bolsonaros-blind-faith-chloroquine-2021-05-04/
