Ousted Brazilian Health Minister on Bolsonaro’s Leadership

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: It is — the numbers say for themselves. You know, we’ve been going up and up, the number of dead people. We are probably, this week, are in the beginning of next week we will be over 1,000 deaths a day. Big cities are now being involved. So, it all started from the north parts of Brazil, in Manaus, which is the capital of the Amazon State and it’s not a crowded state. In Sao Paulo, where things started by the private sector now coming the social determinants of health of Sao Paulo which are slums and Rio de Janeiro really worries me a lot. So, I think we are on the beginning of the hardest part that we are going to pass through. From zero to 10, I would be worried like 10.

AMANPOUR: OK. Well, that’s not very, very, you know, heartwarming, especially when you consider that like many other world leaders, President Bolsonaro wants to restart the economy. So, I just want to first get to why he fired you. He calls it a consensual divorce, so to speak. He praised the work you have done but it appears that there was a difference of methodology. He wanted to get the economy going and I think you thought that you can’t do that until you get the health crisis stabilize. What was it? And was it friendly? I mean, are you pleased with the way he’s still conducting this crisis?

LUIZ HENRIQUE MANDETTA, FORMER BRAZILIAN HEALTH MINISTER: No. I could say that it was friendly because he was elected to take care of the country and I was nominated by him, but the reasons that took it to this point of — I mean, absolutely different opinions about the same situation. It was obviously something that I could not handle with him saying to people to go back to job, walk around and don’t keep distance. Saying that it was a simple flu. And we were in the Ministry of Health. We follow the academy, we follow the governors and mayors and people from the universities and talking with people all over the world, saying that people do have to stay home, to stay safe, to take care of the elderly people. We were clearly on opposite sides. So, once these differences were public, I think that — I mean, he did what he decided that he should do but history will tell who was right and who was wrong. I think that the numbers talk by themselves. We have more than 12,000 cases. They thought that wouldn’t be more than 1,000 and I think that we are going to be way over this. I think that Brazil can become one of the highest number of cases in the world.