Today: Brazil will have yet another Health Minister. How failing to tame the pandemic hurt the economy. And a new corruption case against Jair Bolsonaro.
Brazil appoints its fourth pandemic Health Minister
As we predicted in yesterday’s Weekly Report, the embattled Eduardo Pazuello was on his very last legs as Brazil’s Health Minister. By Monday evening, President Jair Bolsonaro announced Marcelo Queiroga, chairman of the Brazilian Cardiology Society, as the country’s new top health official.
Familiar face. Dr. Queiroga is a longtime Bolsonaro supporter and was part of the president’s transition team after his election in October 2018. Last year, he was nominated to a seat on the board of Brazil’s Supplementary Health Agency (ANS), but the pandemic halted many congressional activities and blocked his confirmation by the Senate.
- In one of his first appearances since being chosen, Dr. Queiroga said that “lockdowns shouldn’t be government policy,” while arguing that a quicker vaccination campaign would be the right solution to the crisis.
Why it matters. Brazil is undergoing its worst moment of the pandemic. The country’s seven-day rolling average of new daily deaths has broken records every day since February 24. It became clear that Mr. Pazuello simply did not...