RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The test reports delivered by the government to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) show that President Jair Bolsonaro tested negative for the novel coronavirus. The tests were released to the public on Wednesday, May 13th.
The test reports were released only after the ‘O Estado de S. Paulo’ newspaper petitioned the Court for access under Brazil’s Freedom of Information Act.
The President had announced on social media that the results had been negative, but refused to show the reports.
The three tests employed the PCR method, considered most effective since it traces the genetic material of the coronavirus. It correctly detects Covid-19 from the first three days of symptoms – unlike the rapid test, which is more effective after the 10th day of symptoms.
According to the letters appended by the Solicitor General’s Office (AGU) in the Supreme Court, third party names were used in the reports to preserve the image and privacy of the President and for security reasons. The CPF (Individual Tax ID Number) and the date of birth on the reports belong to Bolsonaro.
“For the purpose of testing, the fictitious names Airton Guedes and Rafael Augusto Alves da Costa Ferraz were used to register at Sabin’s accredited laboratory, while all personal data from the civil register at official bodies were preserved,” says the letter from the Logistics Commander of the Armed Forces Hospital, Rui Yutaka Matsuda.
The case reached the Supreme Court and on Tuesday evening, May 12th, the AGU delivered the reports to the sitting Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski. The reports were kept in a sealed envelope and, in the early afternoon, Lewandowski ordered them to be included in the case file, with no confidentiality.
“I hereby order the inclusion of all reports and documents delivered by the federal government to my office in the electronic case file, which will be widely publicized,” said the justice in his decision.
The lawsuit filed by “Estadão” was marked by much to and fro. The newspaper eventually achieved favorable decisions, with the ruling that the tests be delivered within 48 hours, but the government had earlier succeeded in reversing the ruling in the 3rd Region Federal Court of Appeals (TRF-3).
The newspaper then appealed to the Supreme Court. On Tuesday, the AGU decided to hand over the reports before a ruling by Justice Lewandowski, thus making the question moot.
Below are the details of each test submitted by the government to the STF.
First test
Date: March 12th
Name: Airton Guedes
Method: Real Time RT-PCR
Result: negative
Processing: private laboratory
The earliest report submitted to the STF shows that the first sample was collected on March 12th by a team from the Armed Forces Hospital. The result was released at 1:47 PM the next day.
The document bears the name Airton Guedes – a codename, according to the government. The CPF and the date of birth match Jair Bolsonaro’s data.
The test was performed using the PCR method, considered more accurate since it detects the genetic material of the coronavirus. Ideally, this test should be performed between three and seven days after the first symptom, or after contact with someone infected.
The material was collected days after Jair Bolsonaro returned from an official trip to the United States in March. At that time, an American TV station even claimed that the President had been infected, but failed to produce any supporting documents.
Over that month, at least 23 people who were part of the official trip tested positive for Covid-19. The President’s Communication Secretary, Fábio Wajngarten, was the first to be diagnosed, returning to Brazil alone on the plane and tested after landing.
Second test
Date: March 17th
Name: Rafael Augusto Alves da Costa Ferraz
Method: Real Time RT-PCR
Result: negative
Processing: private laboratory
The second test was logged in the laboratory’s system on March 17th, five days after the first test. Retesting is part of the safety protocol and helps prevent a “false positive” caused by the immunity window period – when the virus is already in the body but cannot yet be detected.
In this test, the patient comes under the name Rafael Augusto Alves da Costa Ferraz. The CPF and date of birth, once again, are Jair Bolsonaro’s data.
The second test also used the PCR method, considered more accurate. After this test, the President again announced a negative result but failed to provide any evidence.
Third test
Date: March 18th
Name: Patient 05
Method: Real Time RT-PCR
Result: negative
Processing: Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz)
The third test was performed on March 18th, one day after the second test. This time the sample was analyzed by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation ( Fiocruz) public laboratory.
Once again, the most accurate PCR method was used, based on a sample of “nasopharyngeal secretion”. The result was also negative.
The sample “owner” is identified only as “Patient 05”. In the document delivered to the STF, there is no data related to President Jair Bolsonaro.
In such tests, it is common for the same collection of material to lead to two different tests. This may have been the case in the second and third tests, analyzed only one day apart. The documents submitted to the STF do not contain this information.
The Health Coordinator of the Presidency of the Republic, Guilherme Guimarães Wimmer, states in a letter attached to the case file that “patient 05” was Jair Bolsonaro, and that the name was omitted for security reasons.
“Due to the state of emergency in public health caused by the coronavirus and considering the great media coverage on the President’s state of health, security measures were implemented with regard to the tests, in order to preserve the image and privacy of the President of the Republic,” says Wimmer.
“In this context, the President’s personal data were preserved, and the test in question was forwarded to the FioCruz laboratory in the city of Rio de Janeiro identified as Patient 05”.
Carelessness
Jair Bolsonaro’s coronavirus test results have raised concerns because, since the start of the pandemic, the President has repeatedly breached the social distancing and isolation protocols recommended by health authorities.
Days after returning from the United States, and with information that part of his delegation was infected, Bolsonaro interrupted the isolation recommended by the Presidency’s doctors and took part in a protest at the Ministries Esplanade.
In the event, the President greeted, hugged and took pictures with supporters. Crowds had already been discouraged at that time. People who had contact with Covid-19 patients were also advised to remain in preventive isolation.
This behavior was repeated on several occasions. On April 11th, Bolsonaro visited the works of a field hospital in Águas Lindas de Goiás, a city neighboring the Federal District, and broke the rules on wearing a mask and avoiding crowds.
On April 19th, at the Minister of Health Nelson Teich’s swearing in, the President took his hand to his nose, spoke in people’s ear and shook hands with others.
Source: G1