During the G20 summit in Rome, Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said in a mocking tone to the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Ethiopian Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who will “walk in The Hague” with the president Jair Bolsonaro (no party).
The minister’s statement came shortly after Bolsonaro claimed to be “the only head of state in the world investigated, accused of [ser] genocidal.” Then the president amended: “It’s politics.”
Laughing, Queiroga added: “Me too. I’m going with him to The Hague. To walk there in The Hague.”
The Dutch city mentioned by the minister is the seat of the International Criminal Court, a possible destination for accusations made by Covid’s CPI. The Senate body recommended last Tuesday (26) that the Brazilian president be indicted for the common crime of an epidemic resulting in death and crime against humanity, among other crimes, but it dismissed the charge of genocide against indigenous people.
The statements are part of a video posted on social networks, in which Bolsonaro and Queiroga appear seated next to Tedros and assistants. According to Planalto reported on Twitter, the informal conversation took place on Sunday (31), during the G20 summit in Rome.
In another video of the same conversation, Bolsonaro asks the WHO director, laughing. “What is the origin of the virus?” Ghebreyesus replies: “We are still studying”.
Covid was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Almost two years after the Covid pandemic began, the scientific community is still poring over the origin of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus, the cause of the disease .
In recent months, the debate over how the virus came to infect humans has resurfaced with the possibility, unproven so far and without new evidence, of a laboratory escape. The version is refuted by Chinese authorities. Report published by WHO (World Health Organization) after investigation in Wuhan was not conclusive.
In May, Bolsonaro suggested, without providing evidence, that China is engaged in biological warfare with Covid. “It’s a new virus, nobody knows if it was born in a laboratory or by a human being [que] ingested an unsuitable animal. But it is there. The military knows that it is chemical, bacteriological and radiological warfare. Are we not facing a new war?” he said at the time.
In the video recorded on the G20, the participants in the conversation appear without a protective mask against the coronavirus, with the exception of a few assistants who do not speak out.
Após o encontro, Tedro escreveu no Twitter que, no encontro com Bolsonaro, foi discutido “o potencial do Brasil para produção local de vacinas e tratamentos, que poderiam também dar suporte às necessidades da América Latina”.
In March of this year, Bolsonaro took statements by the WHO director-general out of context to suggest that he had changed his mind about physical isolation as a measure to prevent Covid contagion and said that people “have to work”.
In the speech in question, Tedros had defended social distancing and argued that countries should offer support so that low-income people can practice isolation.
Isolated at the summit of leaders of the world’s largest economies in Rome, Bolsonaro ended his participation in the event without any bilateral meeting with global leaders on his agenda or social integration with them. He preferred to use the time to walk the streets of the capital accompanied by supporters.
This Sunday (31), journalists were attacked by security guards during a walk by Bolsonaro and supporters through the streets of Rome. In the midst of the pushing and shoving, at least one protester was injured after being knocked down.
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