On the first day of testimonies for the investigation into Jair Bolsonaro's management of the Covid pandemic, former health minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta stated that President Jair Bolsonaro went against science-based Ministry of Health guidelines for fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
In a deposition of more than seven hours given this Tuesday (4) in the commission, Mandetta also said that Bolsonaro adopted a negationist speech that may have contributed to Covid-19 spreading more quickly.
The former minister, dismissed by Bolsonaro on April 16, 2020, said he even wrote a letter to the president in defense of social isolation, which was delivered at a meeting with other ministers at the Palácio da Alvorada. "It was very embarrassing for a health minister to explain that the health minister was going one way and the president the other," he said.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon