Amid mounting claims that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is mishandling his country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including reports that the number of cases could be 12-times higher than what was reported, the administration on Thursday sacked health minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta over disagreements on the method on containing the virus.
The announcement was met with ‘panelaços’ protests across Brazil’s major cities: A form of protest where people bang pots and utensils together. Mandetta was widely respected, and his frequent and public disagreements with Bolsonaro made him a popular figure in Brazil. Cries of “Bolsonaro murder” were heard in Rio de Janeiro.
“Brazil is the only country in the world where the Minister of Health will fall for having decided to fight the Coronavirus,” tweeted Socialism and Liberty Party member Guilherme Boulos.
Brazil has over 30,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and has suffered nearly 2,000 deaths.
Bolsonaro framed Mandetta’s firing as a “consensual divorce”, but the move came after Mandetta gave a TV interview where he criticised the government. Bolsonaro and Mandetta have had numerous differences over the country’s handling of COVID-19, including over social distancing measures that Bolsonaro opposed on the grounds that it hurt the economy. While Bolsonaro has sought to promote the use of hydroxychloroquine, Mandetta said “he only works with science” and refused to approve its use at the first signs of illness. While Bolsonaro has called COVID-19 a “little flu”, Mandetta had urged Brazilians to self-isolate.
Bolsonaro had made no secret of his dislike of Mandetta. In a TV interview given earlier in April, he said Mandetta had failed to show humility, later warning that he would act against government officials who were “full of themselves”. He called Mandetta’s ousting a “concsensual divorce” saying the health of the Brazilian people was “more important than me and more important than him as a minister".
Mandetta’s replacement, Nelson Teich, is an oncologist and senior health care consultant at medical services company Teich Health Care, with an MBA. At a press conference with Bolsonaro, Teich said that health and the economy were complementary and that no abrupt changes would be announced as too little was known about the coronavirus. He said that he and Bolsonaro were “completely aligned”. Teich has been tasked with helping return the economy to normal. “I know … life is priceless. But the economy and jobs must return to normal,” Bolsonaro said.
However, Teich has also supported the same policy measures Mandetta had, including “horizontal” social isolation—where everyone not engaged in essential services observes social distancing measures.
According to a study by the Center for Health Operations and Intelligence, a consortium of Brazilian universities and scientists, the reported death rate in Brazil does not match up with the number of cases reported, suggesting that the actual number of cases is 12 times higher than what was reported. It estimates that only 8 per cent of cases have been reported. The country’s low testing rate was mentioned by Mandetta, who said it was difficult to test at scale in a country the size of Brazil.
According to a World Bank report, Brazil’s economy is expected to shrink at 5 per cent this year as a result of the direct and indirect consequence of the coronavirus.
