Panel SA: We may have instruments to minimize the economic impact of the pandemic, says Lottenberg

Unlike the scenario at the beginning of the pandemic, today, the country is better able to find instruments to mitigate the economic impact of this new phase of Covid, with the wave of removals of contaminated workers.

It is the opinion of doctor Claudio Lottenberg, of the Albert Einstein council, who believes that the debate on the self-test, whose release was postponed by Anvisa last week, can contribute to public health, as long as there is some kind of monitoring.

Does this new phase of the pandemic show signs that it will end? We completed one year of vaccination. A pandemic must evolve, as has happened with others, to the state of an endemic. It is an evolutionary process that allows the maintenance of the virus to exist without major consequences in the context of coexistence in society.

We still can’t answer if it is in fact in this condition of balance. Other than that, we have to celebrate that we managed to learn a lot in a short time, such as the speed with which we produce vaccines. But I think we’re still in a very challenging scenario.

Today, there is a strong impact on the economy due to the lack of manpower. Is this still serious?Yes. We are experiencing a disorganization of production chains. There is a mismatch between supply and demand, lack of inputs, inflation, important challenges for authorities in all countries.

In the medium term, in terms of economic activity, we will have new behavioral patterns, a decrease in the flow of people. Tech companies win. The others, we don’t know.

At the beginning of the pandemic, some businessmen and the president said that it was better not to close trade or restrict circulation to achieve the so-called herd immunity. Today, there is a vaccine and the omni, which is weaker, but there is still an impact on the economy. Is it a sample that back then, there would also be a strong economic shock?What we would have seen would have been corpses scattered on the street, because we didn’t have enough hospital infrastructure for the complexity.

Today, the scenario is different, we have a deeper knowledge about the virus, we have a testing capacity, which, at this moment, is being put under pressure, but it is much better than it was two years ago.

Right now, I think we can have instruments that help us minimize this impact on the economy. This virus is less aggressive and has a different testing capacity than the previous one.

What do you think about the discussion to release the self-test?If it is used within a public health tool, that is, not based on individual logic, in which the person does the self-test and interprets it as he sees fit, that’s one thing. Public health is another matter.

Portugal, for example, is having a self-test. There’s a test station on every corner just like you do at home. If the self-test was negative, and the person still has some symptoms, perform PCR. If it’s positive, it’s isolated.

The self-test would be very good if there was a marriage with the health authority in which people had monitoring in order to understand how the self-examination is carried out, they knew how to use it and it was of good quality. Otherwise, it may represent a risk within the concept of public health.

His name is quoted by the DEM wing in União Brasil as a suggestion of Rodrigo Garcia’s deputy for the government of São Paulo, but he would have to compete with councilor Milton Leite, mayor of SP. Do you have that chance?It is not the first time that I see my name being remembered to occupy positions in the formal public political structure in Brazil.

Evidently, I have a historical outline that will probably mobilize society for an initiative of this nature. I haven’t had any conversations on that front. I don’t rule out the possibility of being able to participate in this. The only thing is that I think it’s still too early to make decisions of this nature, even for potential candidates for positions in the title, let alone for the vice presidents.

Mr., who supports Doria, how do you see the electoral scenario with a still strong possibility of Lula winning?We are 11 months away from the electoral scene. It is true that polls show two candidates demonstrating greater vitality in their candidacies, Lula and Bolsonaro. Is this a definitive picture? I think history shows that this is not how elections behave.

The campaign starts from March. The two candidacies are strong and there is a design for an eventual third way, in which other candidates appear, among them Moro, Doria, Ciro Gomes.

Mr. Are you following this movement by United Health to leave Brazil?I haven’t participated in the company for three years. I don’t have any access. I left the group, so what I’m following is what comes out in the media.

But how do you rate? Do you see in this any sign of the foreign investor’s view of Brazil?What I see: there are particular problems of a company, which cannot necessarily be translated into a reading about investors within the Brazilian market.

I think it would be risky to take a particular example and generalize within a vision of a perspective of what the country can represent. I think Brazil is a country with a lot of space, particularly in terms of health. There’s a huge market to be occupied.

X-ray

President of the Deliberative Council of the Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Brasileira Albert Einstein, the Instituto Coalizão Saúde (ICOS) and the Confederação Israelita do Brasil (Conib). He is visiting professor at Harvard University (USA), full professor of public health policies in the MBA in Health at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein and member of the Academia de Medicina de São Paulo. He was president of UnitedHealth Group Brazil.

with Andressa Mottere Ana Paula Branco