The Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government told the STF (Supreme Federal Court) that it vetoed Covid-19 treatment guidelines for reasons such as the “intense harassment” of the press and the Covid CPI on members of Conitec (National Commission for the Incorporation of Technologies) in SUS).
The same statement, signed by the AGU (Advocacy-General of the Union), still cites “potential declared and undeclared conflicts of interest” of experts who prepared the texts rejected by the Ministry of Health.
Conitec approved by 7 to 6 the guideline that contraindicated the use of “Covid kit” medicines, such as hydroxychloroquine, in outpatient treatment. It also unanimously accepted three other hospital guidelines, only one of which also analyzed and rejected ineffective drugs.
On the 21st, the Secretary of Health Science and Technology, Hélio Angotti, decided to disapprove all four texts, even the one unanimously accepted and which did not mention the “Covid kit”.
AGU’s arguments reproduce part of a technical note signed by Angotti to justify the veto of the guidelines. The same document by the secretary defended hydroxychloroquine and said that the vaccine does not work for Covid, but the excerpt was deleted after negative repercussions.
The government forwarded these justifications to the Supreme Court last Friday (28), in an action by the MDB that asks Health to establish a protocol or guideline for the treatment of the new coronavirus.
In addition to citing the rejected texts, the AGU told the Court that Health approved in June 2021 a guideline on the use of oxygen, orotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation of patients. This text was prepared by the same group of experts that would later oppose the “Covid kit”.
“Furthermore, there was the incorporation of Fiocruz vaccines [ChAdOx-1 (vacina Covid-19 recombinante)] e a da Pfizer/Wyeth [BNT162b2 (vacina Covid-19)] for the prevention of COVID-19, within the scope of SUS”, says the law firm.
In the document sent to the STF, the AGU reproduces 28 points listed by Angotti to reject the guidelines.
Among them, “repeated leaks of information with intense harassment from the press and political agents of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on Conitec members”.
Based on the same note from the secretary, the AGU pointed out “uncertainty and incipience” of the scientific scenario on Covid-19, in addition to the “need not to miss the opportunity to save lives”.
The AGU statement does not go into detail about Angotti’s arguments.
In the technical note used to reject the guidelines, the secretary quotes a report from leaf by declaring that his requests for the Public Ethics Commission to investigate the opinion that contraindicates the “Covid kit” were “improperly disclosed”.
Angotti also mentions a note from the president of the CFM, Mauro Luiz de Britto Ribeiro, “deploring the political harassment at such a delicate moment in the history of public health around the world”. Ribeiro’s document was a response by the president of the entity, who has a representative at Conitec, to the criticism of the Covid CPI.
In the final report, the CPI senators suggested that Angotti be indicted for incitement to crime and epidemic resulting in death.
In another action in the Supreme Court, minister Rosa Weber gave, on the 26th, five days for the government to explain Angotti’s arguments.
The guidelines on Covid-19, if approved, would not have the power to prohibit doctors from using drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, but would represent a stain on Bolsonaro’s denialist banners.
This is because the federal government, through the Ministry of Health, would recognize the guidelines against the so-called early treatment, that is, the use of ineffective drugs.
as showed the leaf, the government’s pro-chloroquine wing acted to boycott the Conitec discussion. It also articulates the exchange in the command of the organ.
Upon taking over the Ministry of Health, in March 2021, Marcelo 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. Last week, he rejected a request from health secretaries and states and municipalities to immediately review Angotti’s decision, and put antichloroquine guidelines into effect.
Queiroga said that the text could only be overturned now if there was “flagrant illegality”.
The texts that contraindicated the Covid kit were approved in June and December 2021 by Conitec, but the publication of the guidelines was being postponed by Angotti.
Specialists and medical societies that participated in the drafting of the guideline are preparing an appeal to the ministry to reverse the decision to reject the text.
The appeal must be signed by Amib (Association of Brazilian Intensive Medicine), SBI (Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases), SBPT (Brazilian Society of Pulmonology and Tisiology) and AMB (Brazilian Medical Association), in addition to Carvalho.
“I am the final administrative instance. I cannot [revogar a decisão], ex officio, except in situations of flagrant illegality”, said Queiroga on the 27th.
Source: Folha
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