Showing Bolsonaro’s vaccine card violates the law, says Saúde – 03/01/2023 – Power

The Ministry of Health of the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) uses an argument already rejected by the CGU (Controladoria-Geral da União) to maintain its refusal to disclose data from the vaccination card of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

The folder claims that the release could violate the General Data Protection Act. However, still in the Bolsonaro administration, to avoid denials based on the LGPD, the Comptroller had already formulated an understanding that the legislation is compatible with the LAI (Law on Access to Information).

The CGU’s decision to break the secrecy of the ex-president’s vaccination card was taken on February 15, after reviewing the case, but it has not yet been formalized.

CGU minister Vinícius de Carvalho told CNN Brasil on the 17th that there is a record of vaccination against Covid in Bolsonaro’s wallet. In an interview with Sheetthe minister had already signaled the possibility of removing the confidentiality of the ex-president’s vaccination in view of the public interest in information.

Before releasing Bolsonaro’s document, the CGU investigates whether the card has been tampered with. In an official note, the body reported that the legal deadline for judgment of a specific appeal related to the former president’s vaccine card ends on March 13.

Despite the understanding of the controllership, the Ministry of Health used another justification when denying the request of the Sheetcarried out via the Access to Information Act, with the aim of gaining access to the former president’s vaccination card with data on immunization against Covid.

The answer is dated the 24th —thus, after the CGU’s initial decision.

According to the folder, “the data requested, as they refer to health, linked to a natural person, in accordance with the General Law for the Protection of Personal Data – LGPD (item II of article 5), are considered sensitive personal data”.

The ministry cites several hypotheses about the possible disclosure of data of this nature, such as the consent of the person responsible, in case studies, data necessary for the execution of public policies, among others.

“In our understanding, the claim in question does not fit any of the hypotheses legally established in the General Law for the Protection of Personal Data for the processing of data relating to health, linked to a natural person”, says the folder.

After the CGU’s decision to break the confidentiality of the vaccination card became public, the former president’s son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), said that making his father’s document public is “inadequate and even illegal”.

Bolsonaro himself, however, had positively signaled for disclosure during broadcast on his social networks on September 15.

“What’s personal to date that the press asked for and I didn’t give? As far as I remember, vaccine card. For my part, I already told my advisory, whoever wants my vaccine card, can look at it”, said the former president on live.

The former representative claims not to have been vaccinated against Covid, which he made a point of boasting in the middle of the pandemic, raising criticism that the then president’s stance may have affected the population’s adherence to immunization. Meanwhile, Bolsonaro defended the use of hydroxychloroquine, an ineffective drug against the disease.

The withdrawal of secrecy imposed by the Bolsonaro administration was one of the flags of Lula’s campaign, and part of the actions is being reviewed.

The Bolsonaro government had been denying access to the former president’s vaccination document.

In October 2022, the Planalto Palace denied a request made by the Sheet based on Article 31 of the LAI (Access to Information Act), on personal information, which was misused to enforce 100-year-old secrecy.

Experts heard by Sheet they say the information can be provided when there is “overriding public and general interest”.

Lawyer Bruno Morassuti, one of the founders of the agency Sejam Sabendo, says that the Ministry of Health is wrong in denying the information.

For the director of projects at Transparência Brasil, Marina Atoji, the ministry seems to be acting cautiously in view of the non-formalization of the CGU’s decision to disclose. She says that the arguments used by the folder do not fit for the period in which Bolsonaro exercised the mandate.

In the case of registration of vaccination against Covid-19, she mentions that article 31 of the LAI states that the restriction and access “cannot be invoked to harm the process of investigating irregularities in which the holder of the information is involved, as well as in actions aimed at recovering historical facts of greater relevance”.

A Sheet sought out the CGU to question the ministry’s position. The press office stated that the body would not comment on the merits of the portfolio’s position, in the first instance, since it analyzes the appeal in the third.

“The CGU technical team has been dedicated to analyzing the 234 cases in which there is the possibility of reviewing the secrecy imposed on public information in the previous government. In the specific case related to former president Jair Bolsonaro’s vaccine card, the legal deadline for Judgment of the appeal is 03/13/2023. So far, there has been no decision for this specific case.”