Trying to ignore the fact that the country is one of the countries with the highest number of deaths from covid-19 in the world, Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga came to Geneva this weekend to make a speech that the Jair Bolsonaro government was right. He emphasized that vaccination has reached high rates in the fight against the pandemic and that he values ​​universal health services.

Queiroga is attending the World Health Assembly, which begins this Sunday, to present Brazil as a kind of example in some of the responses to the crisis, in an effort to debunk her image of denial. The turnout takes place at the same time that Bolsonaro’s government decided to end the health emergency, coinciding with the start of the election campaign.

It was not time for the international agency to declare the end of the pandemic, with 70 countries reporting an increase in cases.

Queiroga’s speech is scheduled for Monday morning. According to members of the Ministry of Health’s own members, the minister is giving a speech that, at least in its initial version, is limited to bragging about reinforcing the results of the vaccination rate and other measures adopted by the country.

According to sources with access to the document, a preliminary version ignored the delay in initiating immunization, President Jair Bolsonaro’s behavior to promote clusters, criticism against WHO recommendations, millionaire purchases of drugs that have proven to be useless, and essentially ignoring reality. Brazil has one of the highest death rates from covid-19 in the world – surpassing only the United States.

From this weekend, ministers and heads of government from around the world will meet face-to-face at WHO for the first time. One of the goals is to start building new health diplomacy architecture and new tools so that a new pandemic does not catch the world off guard.

The Ministry of Health, contacted twice, did not say what Queiroga’s agenda in Switzerland would be. Itamaraty also remained silent. However, the column stated that he will hold bilateral talks with some countries, attend events on Sunday and Monday, and then continue his trip to the Davos Economic Forum.

But Queiroga will come with a speech of appreciation for SUS, and the government wants to take advantage of Brazil becoming a vaccine donor to insist that it is also part of the solution.

If Queiroga hopes to “normalize” Brazil’s relationship with the global health sector, the order among foreign governments is to approach the current Brazilian administration with a mixture of caution and coldness. “We are in dialogue with Brazil, but we are already looking at what the end of a government might be,” said a negotiator from a key European country. He admits there was widespread “relief” at the risk of Bolsonaro failing to win a second term, on condition of anonymity.

In the corridors of WHO, critical comments still resonate with the Brazilian government, which chose to ignore the advice of science at the height of the pandemic crisis.

At the agency’s peak, the word “crazy” followed by the name of the Brazilian president, while the technicians did not understand how a country with health care experience, quality experts and a solid care network had been so deeply defeated. to the virus. “Where are you?” one of the main operators of the WHO response questioned amid the accumulating deaths.

Steve Levitsky, a Harvard professor and author of the best-selling “How Democracies Die,” points out that Bolsonaro chose to copy Donald Trump even in failed policies.

WHO warns “Pandemic is not over yet”

The world event kicked off this Sunday with a video about the pain, the last two years “opening our eyes” and how health is linked to economic well-being.

It was up to WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus to determine the course of the event. According to him, the world “has suffered and continues to suffer” in the face of the pandemic. According to him, the number of extra deaths during the pandemic was 15 million people, well above official rates.

Criticizing the widespread disinformation used by Bolsonaro’s government, he made it clear that the pandemic was not over. “It won’t magically disappear,” he said.

“Restrictions have been lifted in many countries and life seems to be the same as before. Is the epidemic over? No. It’s definitely not over,” he said.

“It wasn’t the message you wanted to hear. But it wasn’t what I wanted to say. But it’s the truth,” Tedros told ministers around the world.

According to him, there is progress and the vaccine reaches 60% of the world’s population. However, only 57% of countries managed to exceed 70% of their vaccinated population.

Tedros emphasized that in recent weeks, more than 70 countries have recorded an increase in cases. “The pandemic will not end until it ends all over the world,” he said. “The virus has taken us by surprise and we cannot yet predict its speed or intensity,” he added.

At the opening of the event, Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset made it clear: “We have not yet overcome the pandemic”. Using the conference, Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta said that dozens of countries around the world “trust” the WHO’s recommendations to deal with the crisis, a stance that Bolsonaro’s government has refused to accept for months.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the epidemic as “a moral test in which humanity has failed”.

French President Emmanuel Macron emphasized that the pandemic is not over and new variants may emerge. According to him, efforts should continue to vaccinate the world’s population.