‘I warned Bolsonaro’, ex-Brazil minister testifies in COVID probe

Ex-health minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta says he told President Jair Bolsonaro to listen to the science to fight virus.

Brazil’s former health minister has told a parliamentary inquiry that far-right President Jair Bolsonaro ignored repeated warnings that his approach to COVID-19 could cause the health system to collapse in the South American nation. Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who was fired in April 2020 by Bolsonaro for not agreeing to push the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment, testified on Tuesday before a Senate commission investigating the Brazilian government’s handling of the pandemic. “We expressly recommended the president change his stance. We told him it could cause the health system to collapse,” Mandetta said.