Twenty-three days after being appointed to coordinate the National Immunization Program (PNI), a strategic position at the Ministry of Health, pediatrician Ricardo Queiroz Gurgel was informed this Thursday, 28, that he will no longer assume the position. Advocate for vaccination in adolescents and against treatment with a “covid kit”, the doctor said he had learned from an employee of the ministry that he would be dismissed, but without any explanation as to why. “Now I’m going back home,” he said in an interview with state.
The pediatrician’s appointment was signed by Minister Marcelo Queiroga and published in the Official Gazette of the Union on October 6th. Gurgel, however, never actually held the position. For three weeks, he waited for the ministry contact to find out when he could take over. Without an answer, he decided to take a plane in Sergipe, where he lives, and go to Brasília to knock on the ministry’s door. “I came to Brasília on my own, because I was uncomfortable with this situation and I was informed that I will not take office,” he said.
Established in the 1970s, the PNI organizes and implements vaccination actions in the country. Amid the covid pandemic, the program has been uncoordinated since the beginning of July, when the nurse and epidemiologist Francieli Fantinato left the post. In testimony to Covid’s Parliamentary Inquiry Commission, in the Senate, she claimed to have decided to leave because of the “politicization” that took over the vaccination against covid-19. “I’ve been coordinating the PNI since 2019, I’ve been working tirelessly. Due to the latest developments in the politicization of the subject in relation to vaccination, I decided to follow my personal plans”, said Fantinato, at the time.
Since last year, President Jair Bolsonaro has made statements discouraging vaccination against covid, casting doubt on the effectiveness of immunization agents. He himself said that he does not intend to get vaccinated.
Gurgel, who would assume the position, is a professor of pediatrics and, on the same day his appointment was published, he made statements that contradict Bolsonaro. In interviews, he defended the vaccination of teenagers, which was suspended last month by the Ministry of Health after pressure from pocket workers. He also claimed to be against the use of the so-called “covid kit”, composed of ineffective drugs against the disease, such as chloroquine and ivermectin, which is encouraged by the president.
To state, the doctor reported having been received at the Ministry of Health only by a department coordinator. “He told me that I would not take office,” he said. “They didn’t tell me anything else. There was no justification.”
Gurgel said that he now hopes to be able to return to work at the University of Sergipe, where he teaches. To do this, he waits for the ministry to publish the resignation. “I asked you to make this document for me, because I need to take it back (at the university), right? I asked them to make this document for me as soon as possible”, he said. “I was invited, but now I’m going back to my normal life, no problem. I have things to do.”
The doctor said he had met Queiroga only once, when he was interviewed for the position. He said he didn’t know the minister and there have been no more contacts since then. “I don’t have access to the minister,” he said.
The appointment was even disclosed on the Ministry of Health website on October 7th. “From now on, Gurgel will be at the forefront of priority issues for the Ministry of Health, such as the immunization coverage of immunizers provided for in the National Vaccination Calendar and the continuity of the campaign against Covid-19, which has already immunized almost 94% of the population adult with the first dose”, says the text, which is still in the air.
Speaking to the website, Gurgel even planned how the work on the PNI would be. “The priority will be to reinforce the vaccination coverage of the PNI calendars, mainly for children, but also for teenagers, pregnant women and the elderly. We need to put it at safe levels so that these diseases don’t return. Of course, we also have a lot of work related to vaccination against Covid-19,” he said at the time.
recidivism
Gurgel’s case is not unprecedented in the Ministry of Health. Announced in May as head of the Extraordinary Department for Confronting Covid-19, physician Luana Araújo was informed ten days later that her appointment would not be carried out.
Luana is an advocate of mass vaccination and has already declared to be in favor of restrictive measures and against the “covid kit”. In an interview, the doctor stated that “all serious studies” demonstrate the ineffectiveness of chloroquine and that ivermectin is “the fruit of Brazilian arrogance” and “barely works for lice”.
At the time, Queiroga denied pressure from Planalto. Without informing the reason why Luana left the position, he limited himself to saying that the folder would look for another name with “a similar professional profile: technical and based on scientific evidence”.
A few days later, however, during a hearing of the Financial Inspection and Control Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, the minister said that the doctor was a “qualified person” and had the technical conditions to exercise “any public function”, but she was not appointed because in addition to “technique validation”, “political validation” was needed for nomination. “We live in a presidential regime,” said the minister.
Wanted, the Ministry of Health did not comment on the case of Gurgel.
See too
+ How podcasts can help Brazilians’ financial education
+ Mystery: woman discovers that she is not the biological mother of her own children
+ Lemon-squeezing trick becomes a craze on social media
+ Chef playmate creates aphrodisiac recipe for Orgasm Day
+ Mercedes-Benz Sprinter wins motorhome version
+ Anorexia, an eating disorder that can lead to death
+ US agency warns: never wash raw chicken meat
+ Yasmin Brunet breaks the silence
+ Shark is captured in MA with the remains of youngsters missing in the stomach
+ See how much it costs to eat at the MasterChef judges’ restaurants
+ Auction of cars and motorcycles from Kombi to Nissan Frontier 0km
#Doctor #appointed #PNI #dismissed #office #ISTOÉ #MONEY