Minister of Health announces Covid memorial – 07/25/2023 – Health

The Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, announced this Tuesday (25) that her portfolio and the federal government will make a memorial so that Covid-19 and the “disastrous posture of the past government” in relation to the pandemic are not forgotten.

The announcement of what she calls the “policy of memory of this sad time” was made during her lecture at the Congress of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science, this Tuesday (25th), in Curitiba.

“We cannot forget that time. Not that we cannot see that we are in another moment, in another situation. It is not that. But, not only the pandemic, but the way Brazil approached it, the absolutely disastrous government policy, which led us to 700,000 lives lost, cannot be forgotten”, she said, remembering initiatives such as the Holocaust museums.

During her lecture, the minister stated that the pandemic “undressed a series of problems already present in society” and that one of the learnings is about the need to invest continuously in science, technology and innovation.

“Brazil incorporated technology, had two institutes for vaccines, but did not arrive at a vaccine generated in its research laboratories, as happened in other Brics countries, for example”, she commented.

Nísia took the opportunity to mention the 50 years of the national immunization program and the “strong attack” it has been suffering from “a wave of criminal misinformation on social networks”.

“We have intensified these vaccination actions with micro-planning efforts in all regions of Brazil, but it is not just a government task. I think it has to be a society task as well”, she said.

The minister began her lecture with a photo of two researchers, Adele Benzaken and Marcus Vinícius Guimarães de Lacerda, who in 2021 had their decorations revoked by the government, at the height of Bolsonarist denialism during the pandemic.

“Lacerda was responsible, among the various works he carries out, for the study that proved not only that chloroquine was ineffective in relation to Covid-19, but also all the adverse effects of administering chloroquine in the way that, unfortunately, it was done in Brazil”, she highlighted.

Regarding Adele Benzaken, the minister speaks of “another facet of the darkness we were subjected to”. Benzaken lost the award for championing diversity in sexually transmitted disease prevention campaigns.

Without naming former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), Nísia stated that the revocation of the decorations was an abominable fact and that the scientific community needs to remain vigilant, fostering a democratic dialogue also internally.

“At many moments we had the feeling of being living a complete dystopia, a kind of ‘Handmaid’s Tale’. We have not freed ourselves from these threats and that is an important reflection. There is much to do to consolidate a democratic vision of society”, she said.