RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Saturday, May 8, called the parliamentary inquiry commission (CPI) installed in the Senate investigating possible omissions of his government in managing the coronavirus pandemic, which has already left almost 420,000 deaths in the country, an “embarrassment”.
“It is an embarrassment; they only talk about chloroquine. But on the contrary, one offers no alternative. Has anyone here already taken it?” asked the ruler to a group of supporters at the door of his official residence in Brasilia.
Bolsonaro, a right-wing leader who questions the mainstream narrative about the new coronavirus, advanced that he will record in the coming days a video with some of his ministers in favor of this antimalarial drug, whose efficacy against Covid-19 has never been scientifically proven.
“We are going to make a video with all those ministers who took hydroxychloroquine (chloroquine derivative) so that they can say: I took it. It is the alternative of the moment. Ah, but it has no scientific proof,’ but there is nothing to say otherwise,” he justified himself.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has made several pronouncements on the ineffectiveness of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for the preventive treatment of Covid-19 and even warned about possible adverse effects when used for this disease.
However, Bolsonaro, who criticizes the use of masks and social isolation to combat the pandemic, has assiduously promoted the administration of this drug, which his government has massively distributed to Brazilian states.
In this context, the president did show interest in the parliamentary committee to clarify some cases of deaths recorded in Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas, linked to applying a high dose of chloroquine. “Any medicine in excess can cause death,” he warned.
The controversy surrounding chloroquine and other issues, such as the lack of vaccines, are being investigated by the committee in the Senate, where two former Bolsonaro health ministers who left the government due to disagreements with the ruler, and the current head of the portfolio, Marcelo Queiroga, have already testified.
Both Luiz Henrique Mandetta, dismissed by Bolsonaro in April 2020, and Nelson Teich, his successor who resigned in May of that year, confirmed the pressures of the far-right leader to recommend chloroquine against Covid-19 in the Brazilian public health system.
After the departure of both, Army General Eduardo Pazuello took over the ministry. One of his first decisions was to back chloroquine and recommend the so-called “early treatment” with the drug, which is not recommended by most specialists.
Brazil is the country with the second-highest number of deaths associated with Covid-19 globally, with almost 420,000, and the third most infected, with more than 15 million cases, behind only the United States and India.