The Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, attended the hearing of the Human Rights Commission (CHR) of the Senate this to haveTuesday (29) to talk about a technical note from a secretary of the folder in which it was stated that vaccines would be ineffective in preventing covid-19.
The note was issued by the Secretary of Science, Technology, Innovation and Strategic Inputs in Health, Hélio Angotti. The document also stated that drugs without scientific evidence to treat the disease are effective. In this ocasion, entities reacted to the secretary’s stance. According to Queiroga, the technical note reflects an opinion that is the responsibility of the secretary.
“These issues will be dealt with technically, within the proper procedural rite, and I will do so in accordance with the legislation. [A nota] it is a position of the secretary. Secretaries answer for their positions, and I answer for my position. That is why there is recourse to the minister”, said the minister.
For the minister, the case will to have little impact on the work to fight the pandemic, because Brazil has an advanced vaccination campaign and the ministry will continue to incorporate all vaccines approved by Anvisa into the immunization program.
According to Queiroga, the country should soon relax the health emergency decreed by the ministry.
The president of the CDH, Senator Humberto Costa (PT-PE), criticized the minister for not taking a position on the case. Humberto recalled that, when he was at the CPI of the Pandemia, Queiroga said that Conitec’s decisions on medicines for covid-19 would prevail. However, the rejection signed by Secretary Angotti is still in effect.
Understand
In January of this year, the Secretariat of Science, Technology, Innovation and Strategic Inputs decided not to comply with the report of the National Commission for the Incorporation of Technologies to the Unified Health System (Conitec) on the guidelines for the use of medicines for the hospital treatment of patients with covid-19. -19. With this, the orientation that allows each doctor to decide on the indication of medication for the treatment of the disease remains.
The report approved by Conitec contraindicated the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of patients with covid-19, following the understanding of medical societies and the World Health Organization.
Secretary Hélio Angotti Neto justified the refusal in a technical note, in which he pointed out reasons for the decision, including: uncertainty of the scientific scenario in the face of an unknown disease, use of medicines outside the package insert (off label) during the pandemic, respect for professional autonomy, restrictive selection of studies aimed at decision-making and analysis of drugs “in isolation or in simple combination”.
