Official Health Ministry minutes expose playbook of pandemic denialism

As Brazil’s embattled former Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello speaks before the Senate’s Covid hearings committee to investigate the government’s pandemic response, The Brazilian Report analyzed dozens of official documents which help paint a clearer picture of how the Jair Bolsonaro administration operated during the world’s biggest health crisis in a century.

Minutes from meetings within the Health Ministry show the government consistently opting for unproven treatments and ignoring crucial actions to tame the coronavirus spread. These findings add to multiple statements given to the Covid inquiry — as well as opinions from epidemiologists — showing how Mr. Bolsonaro’s leadership has played a major role in aggravating Brazil’s Covid-19 epidemic, making the country one of the world’s biggest coronavirus hotbeds.

They prove that the government was well aware that social distancing and mask use could help Brazil lower infection and death curves. The documents also show a deliberate effort to hide key aspects of Covid-19 transmission. On May 29, minutes from one meeting included the following warning: “IMPORTANT: Do not publicize data.”

Then, in a July 15, 2020 meeting, the Health Ministry debated “whether to include airborne transmission in a guide about risk factors.” Aerosol...