Bolsonaro advocates hydroxychloroquine use during ceremony for low-income housing project

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro once again advocated the use of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of Covid-19. On Friday afternoon, June 11, during a key delivery ceremony of 434 low-income houses to families in the municipality of São Mateus (ES), Bolsonaro said he chose to take to the streets since the beginning of the pandemic rather than “staying at the Alvorada Palace” and that when he contracted the disease he took the drug.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic I have been among you, in Brasilia’s poorest communities. Criticized for this, I could have stayed in the Alvorada Palace with all the comforts of the world, but I always preferred to remain among the people, knowing that there was a deadly virus. I was infected with the virus and took hydroxychloroquine,” said Bolsonaro.

During the ceremony, Bolsonaro also said that he may have been the only head of state to seek a drug against the coronavirus and that he listened to people with scientific knowledge who recommended the drug for the treatment of Covid-19.

“I may have been the only head of state who looked for medication for this disease, something had to come along. I listened to people who had knowledge about the case, but when I said that it [chloroquine] could be good, the opposition started a war against us,” he said.

“I’m not going to falter. I am not hardheaded, I am persevering; we fight to save lives, we face the most varied and cruel challenges,” he added.

Scientific studies point out that chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have no proven efficacy in treating Covid-19.

The president’s position also runs counter to Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga, who this week said that this type of drug is not effective for Covid-19, during his testimony at the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry (CPI) on the Pandemic.

Bolsonaro was accompanied by the Ministers of Regional Development, Rogério Marinho, Infrastructure, Tarcísio de Freitas, and the Institutional Security Cabinet, General Heleno, and the president of Caixa Econômica Federal (Brazil Savings Bank), Pedro Guimarães. During his speech, the president further said that during the pandemic he didn’t close businesses and that he would never decree social isolation measures, such as the restriction of circulation in the cities.

“I didn’t close any businesses, I didn’t destroy jobs, and I didn’t take away anyone’s livelihood. I would never decree a curfew,” he said.

“I have the Armed Forces by my side, I am their supreme chief. They will never go to the streets to keep you at home. They will be able, one day, to go to the streets to guarantee your freedom and your greatest good, as provided in our Constitution,” he said.

Casa Verde e Amarela

Bolsonaro participated in the key delivery ceremony of 434 low income houses in the city of São Mateus (ES). The complex, called Residencial Solar São Mateus, was built with federal funds.

It contains houses in individual lots with 41 m² of private area. The development, which is part of the Casa Verde e Amarela (Green and Yellow House) Program, will benefit some 1,800 people in the city of São Mateus.

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