Chloroquine becomes rare in Bolsonaro family posts

Posts with mentions of the words chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have become rare on the social networks of President Bolsonaro (PL) and his sons Flávio, Eduardo and Carlos. Mentioned 323 times in the first half of 2020 alone, when the WHO (World Health Organization) declared the Covid-19 pandemic, drugs were mentioned only once since the second half of last year. And that comment wasn’t even in defense of the drug.

The two remedies are mainly recommended in the treatment of malaria. The idea that they would be efficient against Sars-CoV-2 came from the French infectious disease doctor Didier Raoult. However, several studies have shown that the drugs are not effective against Sars-CoV-2. In addition, they still pose risks for the emergence of cardiovascular diseases.

Even without evidence, the Bolsonaro family defended drugs for months. The situation caused the president to have friction with ministers of health. Nelson Teich, for example, resigned after not agreeing with the president’s will to recommend chloroquine for patients with mild and moderate cases of Covid.

More than a year ago, however, the position in favor of medicines became less publicized by the Bolsonaros, according to a survey by the Metamemo platform, which stores public information posted on social networks.

The study reviewed Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube posts by the president and his three children. Most of the publications focused on 2020, with the most evident fall from the second half of last year. Since then, there has been no mention of hydroxychloroquine. In the case of chloroquine, it only appeared in a post since then.

This single publication was made by federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro on September 24, 2022, the day of a presidential debate. The comment was not even in defense of the drug as was the case before. “Debate is like serious A versus series B. ‘What’s what’, Florentine x chloroquine, don’t poke the jaguar… my God!”, he wrote.

The decrease in posts with positive references to drugs clashes with the way the family approached social networks before. Between 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, there were 472 posts mentioning one of the two drugs.

The first post by the Bolsonaro clan about the medicines took place on March 25, 2020, when the WHO had already declared a pandemic. Until June of that year, there were 323 publications on the drugs.

During this period, family members already defended the use of the drugs in Brazil to treat the infection, even though there was still no scientific evidence about their effectiveness in the treatment of patients with Covid.

In the midst of the pandemic, chloroquine had tax exemptions in order to facilitate its circulation. The president also mobilized the Army’s Chemical and Pharmaceutical Laboratory to produce drug capsules. The Air Force, in turn, collaborated with the transport of drug loads to regions of the country.

The positioning in favor of the two drugs remained in the second half of 2020, but the volume of posts was lower, reaching 117 in total. One of them came from Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, diagnosed with Covid.

“I’m cured of Covid-19, thank God! I treated from the first symptoms with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin [outro remédio do kit Covid, mas que não conta com comprovação científica]with medical follow-up!”, wrote the senator.

As of the first half of 2021, the posts with mentions of medicines declined even more – there were only 32. Part of them referred to the Covid CPI, an investigation by congressmen regarding the performance of the federal government.

Outside of social media, Bolsonaro called the CPI “syrup” and characterized as “scoundrels” those who are against the prescription of hydroxychloroquine for Covid cases.