The Brazilian Supreme Court has granted a preventive habeas corpus, the local equivalent to pleading the fifth, to former Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello ahead of his testimony before the Senate’s Covid hearings committee. The former cabinet minister is due to appear before senators on May 19, in what was set to be – at least until this ruling – the most anticipated deposition of the investigation so far.
Mr. Pazuello was Brazil’s top health official between May 2020 and March 2021, overseeing the deadliest stretches of the pandemic thus far.
Under his leadership, the Health Ministry abandoned science-based principles and opted instead to closely hew to President Jair Bolsonaro’s preferences as regards health policy. The country shunned deals to purchase vaccines, pushed treatment with chloroquine (an antimalarial drug with no proven effect against Covid-19), and remained aloof as Manaus — the biggest city in the Amazon basin — saw hospitals...
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