Federal Appellate Court Exempts Bolsonaro from Disclosing Coronavirus Test Results

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Solicitor General of Brazil (AGU) appealed to the 3rd Region Federal Appeals Court (TRF-3) to overturn the lower court decision that ordered President Jair Bolsonaro to hand over to the Court “the reports of all tests” carried out to determine whether or not the President was infected by the novel coronavirus.

By a ruling of the appellate judge Mônica Nobre, Bolsonaro no longer needed to disclose the documents by Saturday, May 2nd.

In her ruling, rendered during the TRF-3 holiday duty, the judge suspended compliance with the decision that required Bolsonaro to deliver all documents related to the covid-19 tests within 48 hours. The Judge decided to extend the deadline for the appellate court rapporteur to examine the federal government’s arguments.

The São Paulo Federal Court’s decision, now suspended by the TRF-3, was issued after the government sent a report on Friday, signed by two doctors of the Presidency on March 18th, stating that Bolsonaro was asymptomatic and had tested negative for the disease.

According to Judge Ana Lúcia, the Presidency document does not “fully comply” with last Monday’s judicial ruling. The judge’s decision compelled the federal government to provide “the reports of all the tests” taken by the President.

Bolsonaro had previously stated that the result was negative, but refused to disclose the test reports – in an interview last Thursday, the President conceded that “perhaps” he had been contaminated by the novel coronavirus.

“I may have picked up this virus in the past, maybe, and I didn’t even feel it,” said the President in an interview. Bolsonaro has taken two tests to determine whether he has been infected by the disease – on March 12th and 17th – and announced that the results were negative, but has since refused to disclose them.

The medical report submitted by the AGU to the São Paulo Federal Court is signed by Marcelo Zeitoune, the President’s medical assistant, a specialist in orthopedics and traumatology, and the President’s health coordinator, urologist Guilherme Guimarães Wimmer.

When questioned, Zeitoune said on the phone he could not provide more details about the tests. “Orders from above,” he said. Regarding the fact that Bolsonaro sought an orthopedist for suspected covid-19, he said: “I am an orthopedist and I am a doctor. My specialty is orthopedics. I’m part of the team.”

The government also wanted the medical report to be kept confidential because it involved information considered personal to the President, which was denied by the lower court judge. “The lack of transparency is absolute. The Court’s ruling ordered the test results to be attached. There are no test results attached, so the decision was disregarded,” said attorney Afranio Affonso Ferreira Neto.

Risk

In reaction to the Court, the AGU pointed out that last month’s medical report stated that Jair Bolsonaro “has been monitored by the medical team”, thus finding that “there is no health risk of contagion/spread by the President of the Republic, since he has not proved to be a host of the novel coronavirus to date”. “The medical report attests to the results of the tests carried out,” states the AGU.

At least 23 people who escorted the Brazilian President on his visit to the United States were later diagnosed with the disease. Among them were close assistants, such as the Secretary of Social Communication of the Presidency, Fabio Wajngarten, and the Minister of Institutional Security (GSI), General Augusto Heleno.

After repeatedly asking the Planalto Palace and the President himself about the disclosure of the test result, the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper brought proceedings before the courts in which it points out “restriction to the population of access to information of public interest,” which results in “censorship to the full freedom of journalistic information”.

The President’s office refused to provide the data to the newspaper through the Access to Information Law, arguing that they “concern the intimacy, private life, honor and image of people, protected with restricted access”.

Crowding

Over the past few weeks, the President has disregarded guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health, taking tours around the Federal District and its surroundings, greeting people and forming crowds around him.

On Saturday, Bolsonaro caused a large gathering of people in the city of Cristalina, 150 kilometers from Brasília.

Passing through a gas station in the city, along with security guards and representatives of Cristalina City Hall, the President greeted dozens of people, including elderly and children. Although he was wearing a mask around his neck, the President never used the protection correctly. He hugged several people.

Inside the gas station , Bolsonaro had coffee, ate cakes and criticized social isolation to those around him. “This is irresponsible, an irresponsibility,” he said.

Bolsonaro has already downplayed the severity of the pandemic, referring to the novel coronavirus as a minor “flu” and “cold”. Brazil ended April with a total of 5,901 deaths and 85,380 people contaminated by the novel coronavirus. Today the death toll exceeds 6,000.