Health minister says Brazil should gear up for future pandemics

Brazil’s Health Minister Nísia Trindade argued that the nation should devise a program to prepare for future pandemics. She said she is working on the idea with the World Health Organization, adding that the project includes epidemiological surveillance, investment in science and technology, and reinforced attention to Brazil’s national healthcare system, the SUS.

“Healthcare is a new front in global development. Brazil cannot lag behind in this. Now that the country will assume the presidency of the G20, we must keep our eyes open. Science and technology are crucial for healthcare, but they have to be at the service of the SUS. They cannot be seen as isolated,” she declared during a lower house hearing on Wednesday.

The minister recalled that the COVID-19 pandemic challenged the world, and said that a death toll of 700 thousand in a country boasting a national healthcare system is unacceptable.

“We mustn’t forget that, when we expected solidarity, there was none to be found: We witnessed the unequal distribution of vaccines; we saw a number of nations lacking access to the inoculation, even though healthcare is a public good. Brazil plays a vital role in making us think of healthcare as such. This should mobilize both the public and the private sectors alike,” she argued. In her view, the SUS should serve as one of the pillars in the country’s environmental and social development.

The pandemic, she remarked, laid bare the deterioration of healthcare in Brazil, with poor indicators and institutional, budgetary, and regulatory setbacks that undermined both public policies and the country’s credibility.

“Our healthcare was sick and our efforts must be rich in care and healing. This is our commitment. Therefore, our management must be based on strengthening the SUS. To this end, funding is key,” she declared.

Waste

The plight left by the previous administration, Minister Trindade noted, included 27.1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine without the appropriate time for distribution and a waste of nearly 40 million doses since 2021—a loss of BRL 2 billion to public coffers, not to mention expiring doses and supplies.

“It wasn’t just waste. There was also a lack of basic vaccines—against polio, and measles, and also COVID-19 for children, which had been acquired, but in an insufficient amount for an effective campaign,” she went on to state.