São Paulo police exempt Prevent Senior from pandemic death liability

The São Paulo civil police presented its final report to courts on HMO Prevent Senior’s conduct during the coronavirus pandemic. According to the 13-page document, the analysis of medical records did not prove malpractice or negligence on behalf of the company’s doctors, employees, and former employees. 

Last year, Prevent Senior was accused of concealing the Covid deaths of patients involved in government-sponsored trials using hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin – in some cases without patients’ consent. The company is also under investigation for distributing so-called “Covid kits,” consisting of medicines that were proven to be ineffective in treating the virus.

Police chief Lisandrea Calabuono, who led the inquiry, concluded that there was no evidence the deaths of Prevent Senior patients were related to the use of the Covid kit, and dismissed the idea the company’s doctors were pressured to prescribe drugs such as hydroxychloroquine.

“All expert reports carried out through the analysis of the victims’ medical records described that the cause of death was be Covid-19, but it is not possible to relate this result to the treatment applied, and therefore there is no causal link,” stated Ms. Calabuono. 

The document also dismisses accusations that the HMO recommended palliative treatment to critically ill patients to reduce costs, and omitted coronavirus as a cause of death on death certificates.

The document goes against the conclusions of last year’s Senate Covid inquiry, which suggested the indictment of 11 people linked to the company, and the Prevent Senior hearings in São Paulo’s city council, which requested the indictment of 20 people.

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