Queiroga shows Fux plan to make Covid an endemic

The Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, presented this Thursday (17) to the President of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Luiz Fux, studies for the end of the health emergency situation in Brazil due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

With information about the epidemiological situation in Brazil, Queiroga and the Union’s attorney general, Bruno Bianco, told the president of the Supreme Court that this transition will not be made abruptly.

Last week, President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said that by the end of the month Queiroga will classify the pandemic as endemic, something that can only be done by the WHO (World Health Organization). In practice, what the minister wants is to see Covid as an endemic disease in the country.

Queiroga’s idea is to find a way to defend the end of restrictions against the virus, such as the mandatory use of masks, and to nod to Bolsonaro and his supporters.

Leaving the meeting with Fux, the Minister of Health said that the measure is important with “the slowdown of Covid in most of the country”.

“Within this context, we discussed the duration of the health emergency of national importance,” said Queiroga.

“Sometimes people confuse turning a pandemic into an endemic one. It is not the minister’s prerogative to turn a pandemic into an endemic one. What the minister does is, within the law, establish a health emergency of national importance, in accordance with international health regulations”, said, in contrast to Bolsonaro’s speech.

According to the minister, the government’s idea is to end the health emergency, but preserving vaccines – which in some cases have a record of emergency use – “for those who need them”.

As pointed out to sheetQueiroga’s assistants believe that a way out to maintain vaccines is to publish a transitory instrument to recognize that the disease has lost strength, encourage the reduction of restrictions, but leave room to maintain the emergency use of vaccines.

Members of Health will also measure whether the change or repeal of the ordinance also prevents the continuity of other actions released in crisis situations, such as hiring without bidding and the issuance of extraordinary credits, which are not computed within the spending ceiling.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, issues related to measures related to Covid, such as the mandatory use of masks, have passed through the Supreme Court.