We’re covering the imminent departure of Brazil’s Health Minister. The next state in line for a healthcare collapse. And a relief package in the works for troubled sectors.
The president and his Health Minister in a game of chicken
After weeks of brewing tensions between himself and the president, it seems that Luiz Henrique Mandetta’s tenure as Brazil’s Health Minister will come to an end either today or tomorrow. In a bizarre press conference yesterday that did little to shed light on anti-Covid-19 strategies, the minister and his two main deputies discussed their imminent departures and the problems created by working for an administration with no sense of unity.
- Mr. Mandetta told weekly magazine Veja that he will no longer stay in office after a 60-day battle. “Sixty days measuring your words. You speak today, the person gets you, says they agree with you, and then changes their mind and takes the opposite direction. It’s enough, isn’t it? We’ve helped enough.”
How we got here. There are two main reasons for the relationship between Mr. Mandetta and his boss to be broken beyond repair.
(1) They don’t see eye to eye in the matter of social isolation: Mr. Mandetta is...