Has Health Minister Mandetta become unfireable?

On Monday afternoon, aides of Brazil’s Health Minister were told to clean out their desks, as President Jair Bolsonaro appeared set to “use his pen” and sack ministry head Luiz Henrique Mandetta, after weeks of squabbles over his handling of the Covid-19 crisis. By the evening, however, Mr. Bolsonaro had been talked off the ledge by the military members of his cabinet, and Mr. Mandetta remains the country’s Health Minister — for now.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic reached Brazil in March, President Jair Bolsonaro and his Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta have been in a gradually escalating war of words. Mr. Mandetta, a trained physician, has preached the need to follow World Health Organization guidelines and promote isolation and social distancing measures nationwide. 

President Bolsonaro, on the other hand, has belittled the danger of Covid-19 and urged the country to return to work. Public opinion has sided with the former, with the latest Datafolha polls showing the Health Minister’s handling of the crisis is twice as popular as that of President Bolsonaro’s.

Health Minister Mandetta: doomed, or untouchable?

While it is clear that Jair Bolsonaro has cut ties with Mr. Mandetta, the Health Minister has the support of many of his peers in the cabinet, as well as the heads of Congress, the judiciary — and the...