“We entered 2020 and we had the problem of the pandemic, which, in my understanding, was oversized. From the beginning, I said that we had two problems ahead: the issue of the virus and unemployment, and that they should be treated with the same responsibility. simultaneously, “said Bolsonaro, quoted by the newspaper O Globo, during an event of the Federation of Industries of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Firjan).
“If we, and part of the business community, had embarked on the wave of ‘stay at home, that the question of the economy will see later’, we would certainly be in a very complicated situation at the moment”, added the representative, who since the beginning of the pandemic proved to be one of the most skeptical heads of state in the world regarding the severity of covid-19.
In total, the South American country concentrates 150,998 fatalities and 5,113,628 cases of infection with the new coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, which was officially registered in Brazil on February 26.
Thus, Brazil is the Portuguese-speaking country most affected by the pandemic and one of the hardest hit in the world, occupying the second world position in the list of nations with the highest total number of deaths and the third in the country with the most infections.
Since the arrival of the pandemic in Brazil, Bolsonaro has caused controversy by provoking agglomerations, defending the economic reopening, not wearing a mask in public places and criticizing governors and mayors who enacted social isolation measures in several states of the country.
At today’s Firjan event, the President of Brazil also praised the current Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, who, according to Bolsonaro, was appointed not for being a general, but for being, “in particular, a great manager”.
“In terms of health, we have also had some success in relation to the rest of the world, especially when we put a general in the Ministry of Health. Not because he is a general, but because he is, in particular, a great manager, who is doing an exceptional job in this area. area, “said the head of state, referring to Pazuello, his third health minister.
Army General Pazuello took on the role of Executive Secretary of Health in April, the second highest position in the ministerial hierarchy, after oncologist Nelson Teich took over the Ministry, replacing Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who was dismissed after having publicly disagreed with Bolsonaro in the conduct of the measures to combat the new coronavirus.
However, a few weeks later, Teich resigned, with Pazuello temporarily assuming the leadership of the Ministry of Health, a situation that was widely criticized in the country, due to the lack of specialization of the military in health matters.
On September 16, Eduardo Pazuello took office as Brazil’s Minister of Health, after four months of interim leadership during the covid-19 pandemic in the country.
Under the general’s management, the Ministry of Health changed the guidelines, so that the population looked for the health network when they felt any symptoms of the disease, even if it was mild.
Pazuello is the ninth minister who left the military ranks under Bolsonaro’s government.
The covid-19 pandemic has already claimed more than one million and eighty-seven thousand deaths and more than 38.2 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report made by the French agency AFP.
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