Private bank donates $200 million to fight against COVID-19

With a view to strengthening health care services, including Brazil’s public hospitals, private bank Itaú Unibanco today (Apr. 13) announced the donation of $200 million to efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. The decisions on how the amount will be managed will be made as part of program All for Health (Todos pela Saúde in the original), spearheaded by a group of specialists led by Sírio-Libanês Hospital General-Director Paulo Chapchap.

Under the management of Itaú Unibanco Foundation, the funding will be withdrawn from the financial institution and may be expanded by further donors, said bank President Candido Bracher. “The funds will come from the bank’s balance and do not enjoy any fiscal benefit linked to any other expenditure the bank has,” Bracher stated.

Running the Sírio-Libanês Hospital since 1998, Paulo Chapchap declared that one of the first efforts under All for Health will be publicizing advertisement stressing the importance of prevention measures against COVID-19, like wearing masks. He said that health agents have been mobilized in order to build crisis cabinets in places where a response must come more quickly. He said he talked to Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta about the initiative.

Chapchap also noted that the program will seek to address one of the main bottlenecks facing the scientific community worldwide today, namely the acquisition of supplies, including personal protective equipment. To help tackle this issue, he said the team must encourage the domestic industry to manufacture these products in order to meet the demand.

Social inequality

In the view of Dr. Pedro Ribeiro Barbosa, director-president at the Molecular Biology Institute of Paraná and a member of All for Health, public divestment in the Brazilian science is among the drivers behind the current plight assailing Brazil during the pandemic. He also argued that the state should ensure the protection of life, especially that of the most vulnerable portions of the population, because “saying social distancing is necessary is not enough, when subemployment is to be found at alarming rates in society.”

“We have several conglomerates of wealth in this country. May the fortunes add to a solidary way of thinking,” the doctor said.

Renowned for his experience in the country’s prison system, Doctor and writer Drauzio Varella, also a member of the project, said the accumulation of social inequalities in Brazil will make a significant impact on the pandemic. These old-standing circumstances, he argued, will take their toll and require the Unified Health System (SUS)—as Brazil’s network of public hospitals is called—no longer to be taken for granted.

“From all of this in the program, I think a structure is coming which we can leave as a legacy for the SUS after the pandemic is over. I believe we can emerge from the epidemic with a more organized and efficient health care system,” he pointed out.

All for Health

The members of All for Health have held meetings since last week to establish the guidelines of the program, which will be designed around four axes:

Information

– A campaign to encourage people to wear masks;
– advice on hand hygiene and coughing etiquette;
– efforts to encourage solidarity by society at large.

Protection

– Personal protective equipment and tests for health agents;
– tests for the population to provide the basis for public health initiatives.

Care

– Support for state officials and major city authorities in assembling crisis cabinets;
– training and support for health agents in best practices, protocols, and therapies;
– telemedicine for case monitoring and support for health agents;
– expanded capacity and efficiency in hospital facilities;
– acquisition and distribution of supplies, and the management of equipment and human resources.

Resumption

– Efforts to resume social activities as normal, monitoring of people in risk groups;