Covid CPI parliamentary committee is a national embarrassment – Bolsonaro

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro used his weekly live stream to attack the Covid CPI and the senators who make up the committee against the federal government’s role in managing the pandemic in the country.

“It’s a circus, now the interrogators, the inquisitors are led by Senator Renan Calheiros who said he will not investigate embezzlement,” he said.

“Brazil is the country of hypocrisy, starting with this CPI. I wish I could go back to being a deputy to speak my mind about this CPI. But being president, it doesn’t look good. Particularly to comment on the CPI rapporteur. An embarrassment. He was, indeed, well described by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro last week,” he added, referring to his son’s statement, who called the committee’s rapporteur, Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), a “bum”.

Bolsonaro said that the issue on the use of chloroquine – a drug with no proven efficacy that is at the heart of the CPI’s investigations – has already been solved, as there are governors supporting its use. He further said that testimonies showed that there was no government negligence in the acquisition of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine.

But the videos released at Thursday’s session were from the early period of the pandemic, when there was still no scientific evidence of the inefficacy of chloroquine against Covid-19.

Despite its inefficacy against the disease, the president continues to promote the drug. In this Thursday’s live stream he said he took the drug again recently when he didn’t feel well, before even seeing a doctor.

“I took that anti-malaria drug and I took it a while ago, it was about June, July, I took the drug and the next day I was fine,” he said.

“And I’ll tell you something else: a few days ago I was feeling sick and before I even saw the doctor – look at this example – I took the drug as I had symptoms, I took it, I was examined and I was not sick,” he added, emphasizing that he did this as a “precaution.”

With respect to the purchase of the Pfizer vaccine, the CPI showed that the government did not reply to the company’s proposals for some time and that there was delay in finding a solution in the legislation to fill any legal gaps needed to close the deal.

During much of the pandemic, Bolsonaro dismissed the need for and benefits of vaccines in fighting the coronavirus, changing his position only after opinion polls showed a drop in his popularity amid the slow pace of the population’s vaccination.