Bolsonaro promotes self-test for Covid, days after saying that the omicron is welcome

After declaring that the omicron variant was “welcome”, President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) used his social media this Sunday (16) to promote the self-test to detect Covid-19, currently under analysis by Anvisa (National Health Agency). Health Surveillance).

The post takes place at a time of great attention focused on the pandemic, because of the high number of cases, the alerts of lack of tests to detect the disease and also the beginning of vaccination for children between 5 and 11 years old.

The president presented data to defend the Ministry of Health’s testing program and used it to highlight the benefits of self-testing – which will be sold in pharmacies. The folder sent this week to Anvisa a request to release this type of test.

“National Testing Expansion Plan: I forward to Anvisa information about the antigen self-test for the detection of Covid-19. The use of the self-test can guarantee the quickest start of actions to interrupt the transmission chain”, wrote the president.

“The objective is for the tests to be made available in pharmacy/drugstore chains and other health establishments for people with or without symptoms who are interested in carrying out self-testing”, he added.

Bolsonaro also said that antigen tests are already widely used in the public network and took the opportunity to reinforce that the government has already distributed more than 381 million doses of vaccines against Covid-19.

Brazil has been registering a strong increase in cases of infection by Covid-19, with the spread of the ômicron variant. The numbers could be even worse, considering the blackout of information at the Ministry of Health. Datafolha research also showed that the number of people who claim to have already been infected by the new coronavirus is twice the official estimates.

In parallel, the private network warns of the possible lack of tests to detect the coronavirus, due to the great demand in laboratories and pharmacies, after the holiday season.

President Bolsonaro, in turn, minimized the impact of the omicron variant — as he had already done in virtually every wave of the pandemic.

“[A] ômicron, which has already spread all over the world, as the people who really understand say: that it has a very large capacity to spread, but very small lethality”, said Bolsonaro, in an interview with the website Gazeta Brasil, on Wednesday. (12).

“They even say that it would be a vaccine virus. They should even… According to some studious and serious people – and not linked to pharmaceutical companies – they say that the ômicron is welcome and can indeed signal the end of the pandemic”.

On the other hand, pressure is increasing on the government, particularly on Congress. Senators who were part of the Covid CPI articulated the creation of a new commission to investigate the blackout of data, the omission in the vaccination of children and the attacks against Anvisa technicians.​