Queiroga says hydroxychloroquine has no scientific proof after folder defends medicine

The Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, said that hydroxychloroquine has no proven effectiveness against Covid-19. Medications from the Covid kit have already been discarded by the scientific community for the disease.

The statement was given days after the ministry stated that there is efficacy and safety in the use of hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19 in a document used to justify the rejection of Covid-19 treatment guidelines to SUS.

“These medications were used at the beginning of the pandemic and at the time the use was called compassionate use, everyone used it. Later, it was seen that in these situations this medication was no longer applicable and was tested in other contexts, right? These medications, including me As I said, they are medications whose scientific evidence of their effectiveness has not yet been proven”, he said in an interview for the program Sem Censura, on TV Brasil.

In the same technical note, the folder states that the vaccines do not demonstrate these characteristics. The anti-vaccine demonstration was made in a table within a document signed by the secretary of Science, Technology and Strategic Inputs, Helio Angotti, a government wing leader who defends the denialist banners of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

The rejected guidelines had been prepared by specialists from medical and scientific entities and approved by Conitec (National Commission for the Incorporation of Technologies in the SUS). The texts contraindicated the use of medicines from the Covid kit.

Queiroga stressed that the decision taken by Angotti can be appealed and he himself will decide if necessary.

Specialists and medical societies that participated in the elaboration of the guideline against the use of the Covid kit in the SUS will present an appeal to the Ministry of Health against the decision to archive the text.

“This decision may be appealed [de Hélio Angotti] himself and if the appeal is not accepted, it is up to the Minister of Health to decide. The minister takes the ball, shoots it at the penalty spot and hits the ball to score. It’s not the government of the football metaphor, is it? But we have to explain to those who watch us on our TV Brasil. It came to the minister, I will analyze whether the appeal should be accepted or not and if it is accepted I will analyze its details”, he said.

Upon taking over the Ministry of Health, in March 2021, Queiroga announced that he would promote the debate at Conitec to end the discussion on the use of the Covid kit. He appointed the doctor and professor at USP Carlos Carvalho, against ineffective drugs, to organize a group that would prepare the opinions.

Queiroga, however, modulated the speech and has invested in pleasing Bolsonaro to hold on to the position. He began to avoid the topic, although he admits to colleagues that he does not see benefits in the use of these drugs.

The minister also alternates, in speeches, praising the purchase and delivery of vaccines with nods to the Bolsonarista wing that doubts the safety and effectiveness of immunization.

This Monday (24), the AMB (Brazilian Medical Association) said that the Minister of Health acts outside the simplest rules of conduct and ethical precepts expected for the function.

In one of the points, he said that the minister defends the Covid kit under the thesis of medical autonomy.

“Back in October, he made one of his repeated defenses of the application of the ineffective Covid kit, under the untenable thesis that it was a matter of medical autonomy. The truth is that the use of treatments already proven ineffective by science is not autonomy, but rather medical malpractice”, he pointed out.

He also highlighted the latest move by the portfolio that, in a technical note, disqualified the evidence from science and the recommendations approved for the outpatient and hospital treatment of Covid-19 by Conitec.

“In the same technical note, the Ministry of Health maintains that hydroxychloroquine is effective and safe. Extremely serious, the note still classifies Covid vaccines as measures without proof of effectiveness and unsafe, contrary to all scientific evidence”, scored.

ABC (Brazilian Academy of Sciences) expressed its repudiation of the actions of the Secretariat of Science, Technology, Innovation and Strategic Inputs, which rejected the opinion approved by Conitec.

“We express our support and solidarity with the coordinators of this working group, as well as the numerous experts involved, who represented scientific societies and universities and developed, in meticulous work, guidelines for the treatment of Covid-19, based on solid and well-founded scientific knowledge. on the best internationally accepted information and recommendations,” he said.