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Brazil’s Bolsonaro fires health minister after virus dispute
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| Contributor | IndyGeorgia |
| Last Edited | IndyGeorgia Apr 16, 2020 03:20pm |
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| Category | News |
| Author | David Biller |
| News Date | Thursday, April 16, 2020 09:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro fired his health minister on Thursday after a series of disagreements over government efforts to contain the new coronavirus. “I just heard from the President Jair Bolsonaro the news of my dismissal from the health ministry,” Luiz Henrique Mandetta posted on his verified Twitter profile, adding that he wished success to his replacement, who is yet to be named officially.
Mandetta, a doctor, garnered popular support for his pandemic response that included promotion of broad isolation measures enacted by state governors. Bolsonaro, for his part, repeatedly characterized the virus as a “little flu,” said shutting down the economy would cause more damage than confining only high-risk Brazilians, and touted the yet-unproven efficacy of an anti-malarial drug.
Mandetta has drawn comparisons to Dr. Anthony Fauci, U.S. President Donald Trump’s top virus expert. Fauci and Mandetta have often made public statements about the virus that differed with those of their bosses. Afterward, Bolsonaro and Trump’s bases each took to Twitter to call for removal of their country’s top health official. The White House has said this week that Fauci’s job is secure.
Republicans close to the White House say Trump has complained about Fauci’s positive media attention and sought to leave him out of task force briefings. Bolsonaro, likewise, had convened doctors without inviting Mandetta and, in a televised interview earlier this month, said Mandetta had failed to show “humility.” A few days later, on April 5, Bolsonaro told a group of supporters that he would act against officials in his government who “are full of themselves.”
Those comments were widely understood as signaling an end to Mandetta’s tenure, so much so that the minister said the next day his subordinates had cleaned out his desk. |
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