Brazil's health minister resigns after one month on the job
16 May, 2020
Brazil's health minister resigned Friday after less than a month face to face in an indicator of continuing upheaval over how the nation should battle the coronavirus pandemic, quitting a day after president Jair Bolsonaro stepped up pressure on him to expand use of the antimalarial drug chloroquine in treating patients.
Dr Nelson Teich, an oncologist and healthcare consultant, took the work on April 17, and was confronted with the duty of aligning the ministry's actions with the president's view that Brazil's economy should not be destroyed by restrictions to regulate spread of the virus.
Teich's predecessor, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, also had rejected the utilization of chloroquine, which also had been touted by U.S. president Donald Trump as cure.
Officials say more than 13,000 people have died in Brazil from COVID-19, the condition due to the coronavirus, while some professionals say the figure is drastically higher because of insufficient testing.
The peak of the crisis has yet going to Latin America's major nation, experts say.
Gen. Eduardo Pazuello, who had no health experience until he became medical Ministry's No. 2 official in April, is definitely the interim minister until Bolsonaro chooses a replacement.
Brazilian media have said that Teich's capability to do his job had been weakened by the appointment of a large number of military personnel to jobs in the ministry.
"Life comprises of choices now I made a decision to leave," Teich told journalists in capital Brasilia. He did not clarify why he left the job and refused to answer questions.
Teich's resignation came 1 day after Bolsonaro told business leaders in a video conference he would ease rules for utilization of chloroquine to treat persons infected with the coronavirus.
Teich has frequently called make use of the drug an uncertainty, which week warned of its unwanted effects.
MEDICAL Ministry previously allowed chloroquine to be utilized in coronavirus cases only for patients hospitalized in serious condition.
At Bolsonaro's urging, the country's Army Chemical and Pharmaceutical Laboratory boosted chloroquine production in late March.
Researchers last month reported no benefit in a big analysis of the drug or a related substance, hydroxychloroquine, in U.S. hospitals for veterans.
Last month, scientists in Brazil stopped part of a report of chloroquine after heart rhythm problems developed in one quarter of folks given the bigger of two doses being tested.
Governors who've recommended quarantine measures and refrained from touting the drug's unproven potential said Teich's resignation reflects Bolsonaro's failure to manage the pandemic.
Rio de Janeiro Gov. Wilson Witzel, a former ally of Bolsonaro, said no one can do serious work with interference in ministries."
"That is why governors and mayors have to lead the pandemic crisis, and not you, Mr. President," Witzel said on Twitter.
The governor of Ceara, among Brazil's most hard-hit states, said Teich's exit brings enormous insecurity and concern.
"It is unacceptable that when confronted with this serious health crisis, the focus of the government is still on political and ideological discussions. That is an affront to the country," Camilo Santana said.
Bolsonaro fired Teich's predecessor, Mandetta, on April 16 after disagreements over efforts to contain the new coronavirus.
The president opposed governors' quarantine suggestions and restrictions on businesses, was wanting to resume economical activity and warned failure to do so would cause Brazil to descend into chaos.
Mandetta had sided with the governors and became the embodiment of challenges to Bolsonaro's position.
Teich took office pledging to balance healthcare concerns and the president's monetary worries. He didn't openly challenge the president's views, but did defend stay-at-home measures.
Miguel Lago, executive director of Brazil's non-profit Institute for Health Policy Studies, which advises public health officials, said Teich wasn't able to build his own team, didn't have Mandetta's political strength and wasn't willing to violate the scientific recommendations.
He plainly had limitations, Lago said. He wouldn't normally challenge what has been consensus among the scientific community.
He would never accept the chloroquine thing that Bolsonaro wanted him to do, to recommend publicly that chloroquine was a remedy to be utilized in the general public health system.
Risk consultancy Eurasia Group noted that while governors play an integral role in responding to the virus, the Ministry of Health coordinates between states and means that medical equipment is distributed to states with more need.
The capacity of an efficient coordinating role looks to have dropped with Mandetta's exit, analyst Filipe Gruppelli Carvalho said.
Ultimately, Teich's dismissal reinforces our view of increasing risks from the government's poor response to the pandemic, that could donate to a weaker presidency and decline in support for Bolsonaro in the post-pandemic phase, he said.
After Teich's resignation was announced, pot-banging protests were heard in several regions of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
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