- The differences between what the Minister of Health said and what the president recommended are notable in Brazil. The first has recommended confinement as the only measure to curb the spread of the pandemic. The president, for his part, has been in favour of maintaining economic activity in the Basque Country.
The confinement proposed by former Minister of Health, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, was supported by 76% of the population. However, Bolsonaro has on many occasions expressed his rejection of these measures and stated that "I know that lives are important, but the economy and work have to return to it." To this was added the previous statements, in which it was said that he would have died and that, while he felt that this should be the case.
The discrepancies between the two politicians have occurred since the pandemic reached the country. Even advising to stay at home, the president has taken to the streets in demonstrations in his favor or eating the donuts, among others. Mandetta said that if this persists, the president should criticize the president and the president replied: “If you do, I will throw you out in the street.”
Despite the pressures, Mandetta assured that he did not intend to resign from office because of the scandal he suffered. “A doctor never puts his patient aside,” he said, although he learned that his performance depended on the president. That's what the president reminded him, that he had to be "more humble" and that he had to fulfill what his president said.
The president has chosen the oncologist Nelson Teich, who has gone through private healthcare to replace Mandetta.
I have just heard from President Jair Bolsonaro or notice of the minha demissão do Ministério da Saúde.
— Henrique Mandetta (@lhmandetta) April 16, 2020
I was expecting to hear from you, from being a manager of SUS nosso, from pôr de pé or projeto de meléu da saúde dos brasileiros e