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Brazil's Bolsonaro fires Health Minister Mandetta after differences over coronavirus response
Washington Post
April 16, 2020 at 1:07 p.m. MST
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has fired Luiz Henrique Mandetta as minister of health, Mandetta said on Twitter Thursday afternoon. The two officials had sparred publicly in recent weeks over the need for social distancing to fight Latin America’s largest coronavirus outbreak.
“I just received notice from President Jair Bolsonaro of my resignation from the Ministry of Health,” Mandetta tweeted. “I want to thank you for the opportunity I was given, to lead our [public health system], to launch a plan to better the health of Brazilians and to plan the combat of the coronavirus pandemic, this great challenge that our health system faces. … I wish my replacement success in his role as minister of health.”
Brazil has reported more than 29,000 cases and more than 1,760 deaths from covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, numbers second only to the United States in the Western Hemisphere. Given Brazil’s sharply limited testing, actual cases and deaths are believed to be significant undercounts.
But much of the country’s focus in recent days was on the widespread speculation that Bolsonaro was about to fire Mandetta, after the minister criticized the president on a popular news show for refusing to abide by the ministry’s social distancing guidelines.
A replacement was not immediately named.
The move comes as packed hospitals and clinics teeter on the brink of collapse. Emergency rooms in Amazonas state are running at capacity, with 95 percent of intensive care beds and ventilators occupied. Rio de Janeiro’s famed Maracana soccer stadium has been converted to a makeshift hospital to accommodate coronavirus patients. Gravediggers in the country’s largest cemeteries are working overtime to bury the dead.
In the Western Hemisphere, Brazil trails only the United States in confirmed cases of the virus. But Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed the severity of the outbreak — dismissing the virus as a “little flu,” shrugging off social distancing recommendations from the World Health Organization and sharing videos calling for an end to the country’s lockdown.
“I just received notice from President Jair Bolsonaro of my resignation from the Ministry of Health,” Mandetta tweeted. “I want to thank you for the opportunity I was given, to lead our [public health system], to launch a plan to better the health of Brazilians and to plan the combat of the coronavirus pandemic, this great challenge that our health system faces. … I wish my replacement success in his role as minister of health.”
Brazil has reported more than 29,000 cases and more than 1,760 deaths from covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, numbers second only to the United States in the Western Hemisphere. Given Brazil’s sharply limited testing, actual cases and deaths are believed to be significant undercounts.
But much of the country’s focus in recent days was on the widespread speculation that Bolsonaro was about to fire Mandetta, after the minister criticized the president on a popular news show for refusing to abide by the ministry’s social distancing guidelines.
A replacement was not immediately named.
The move comes as packed hospitals and clinics teeter on the brink of collapse. Emergency rooms in Amazonas state are running at capacity, with 95 percent of intensive care beds and ventilators occupied. Rio de Janeiro’s famed Maracana soccer stadium has been converted to a makeshift hospital to accommodate coronavirus patients. Gravediggers in the country’s largest cemeteries are working overtime to bury the dead.
In the Western Hemisphere, Brazil trails only the United States in confirmed cases of the virus. But Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed the severity of the outbreak — dismissing the virus as a “little flu,” shrugging off social distancing recommendations from the World Health Organization and sharing videos calling for an end to the country’s lockdown.
More at link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/coronavirus-brazil-bolsonaro-luiz-henrique-mandetta-health-minister/2020/04/16/c143a8b0-7fe0-11ea-84c2-0792d8591911_story.html
Because of the eerie similarities (and some interesting differences) I find what's happening in Brazil these days riveting.
Edit: added a little from the article.