Quiroga slipping into the balance between science and Bolsonaro’s denial | Myriam Leitao

The current Health Minister, Marcelo Quiroga, has tried the impossible in his testimony on Covid’s CPI. Maintain your medical department without getting angry by your boss, President Jair Bolsonaro. Quiroga fled as he could from all the questions that would conflict with Bolsonaro and, in the opinion of the CPI members, showed a strong attachment to the position. Therefore, the impression on the colleague is that at the moment it seems unlikely that he will ask to leave, as former Minister Nelson Tisch did, or be fired, as happened with Henrik Mandetta.

Senator Otto Alencar (PSD-BA), a full member of CPI, estimates that Quiroga will do whatever Bolsonaro says. But, unlike his predecessor, General Pazuelo, he would be less clear in putting these guidelines into practice. In other words, he will evade the line of “one command, another obedience” that characterized Eduardo Pazuelo’s administration.

– I see that he will not be as frank as Pazuelo was, following the instructions of the President of the Republic, but he will do it in a consensual manner, really disguising what the president wants to do – the senator said.

According to Alencar, Quiroga has shown that he is more interested in remaining in office, which is why he escaped from the main questions that could piss off the president.

– The summary should be: I want to stay in office, I don’t want to anger the president, and so I will try to avoid the more consistent questions that I will answer – he indicated.

For Senator Alessandro Vieira (Cidadania-SE), Quiroga has shown that he particularly follows the guidelines of science, but he, as Minister, has clearly shown that he will be under Bolsonaro’s orders.

Agrees with the technical consensus on Covid: vaccines, isolation, masks. It also approves the use of medicines in public policy only with scientific support. But it was also clear that he had an intense fear of not upsetting the president – said Vieira.