Minister of Health promises to fight fake news about vaccines and return of Zé Gotinha

The Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade granted this Thursday (19) the first interview to CNN after taking office earlier this month.

Popular Pharmacy, Rede Cegonha, public mental health policies and actions aimed at women’s health are among the programs of the Unified Health System (SUS) that will be resumed and expanded under the new management.

Over the first hundred days of management, actions such as expanding vaccination coverage, hiring new professionals for the Mais Médicos program and drawing up an emergency plan to reduce queues for diagnoses and elective surgeries will also be prioritized.

Check out the highlights below:

Vaccination coverage and the return of Zé Gotinha

Nisia Trindade: Zé Gotinha, a character created by Darlan Rosa in 1986, who accompanied my children’s growth, is back in full force, especially with the fight against fake news regarding vaccines and also seeking to optimize vaccination and establish a policy together with the Ministry of Education, having vaccination as an agenda not only for the Ministry of Health but for society as a whole.

As for the numbers, the data from our Transition Health Group report is very clear. Just to give an example, this low vaccination coverage meant, in the case of poliomyelitis, that we achieved only 40% coverage in 2022, when this coverage was already in the range of 90% of our child population that needs to take this vaccine – just as an example . And polio is seen today as a major threat that we hope will not be met with vaccination, but that goes for other diseases as well.

In the case of Covid, there is the issue of the population that went to vaccinate the first dose, but did not complete the vaccination schedule. So we always make this reminder: complete the scheme, the two doses, plus the booster dose, within the schedule defined by the Ministry of Health. And the vaccination of children: the numbers of Covid in children are worrying. Sadly, with deaths of children from Covid. It is not possible, with a disease that is preventable in severe cases and hospitalizations through vaccines, not protecting us adults and not protecting our children.

Repeals of ordinance on abortion

Nisia Trindade: At that time, the repeals followed the consensus established in the Transition Group, not only in health, but this entire process was consolidated in the Transition Group as a whole. What is important, and it is an opportunity to clarify, is to state that there is no change in brazil’s legislation regarding abortion.

THE abortion in Brazil is not considered a crime in three situations : in cases of sexual violence, rape; the second case is the risk of life for women, and the third case that was a more recent decision – the first two are from the 1940s, the third situation is the pregnancies of anencephalic fetuses, a decision of the Federal Supreme Court.

There is no proposal to change this legislation in the repeal of this ordinance . This ordinance resumes previous guidelines in the Ministry of Health, which are guidelines for compliance with the law and care for women and girls victims of violence, because the revoked rule determined that the health professional had to be communicated to the police authority.

This should not be an obligation, in the first place, of the health professional, it has never been provided for by law and the code of medical ethics itself does not provide this guidance. In addition, it often creates very difficult situations, because unfortunately, in many cases, situations of sexual violence occur within the family nucleus. So, there is often a difficulty for this police record and this cannot be an embarrassment and an obligation.

What we need to have, and in this case there is a statement by the women and follow-up when they are girls by their family members, is care, protection from violence that must be fought and this is also a policy of the Ministry of Health . The defense of the family must always come together with the defense of a family that protects children and adolescents, this is what we even define in Brazil in our Statute for Children and Adolescents.

CNBB’s criticism of the revocation of the ordinance

Nisia Trindade: I follow all the criticisms and my concern is exactly with the clarification. At the same time, the work dynamics here are so intense, preparing actions, receiving state governors, social movements and parliamentarians, that I can only think of the work we have to do.

The clarification is very important: I believe that we always need to improve our communication, even though we have been careful with the grade and that is what I have tried to do in this conversation. With regard to the CNBB, I am open to any clarification with the CNBB, I had the honor of being one of the speakers at the event celebrating the 70th anniversary of this council, which is so important for not only religious issues, but democratic issues in our country and the rights of our society .

In fact, I believe it is to clarify and affirm that the Ministry of Health will at this moment be a ministry in defense of life, of the good conditions of equality and mainly of the protection of our families and no government will do this in a clearer and more assertive way than the government of President Lula. We defend life, vaccine, protection, care. This is the line that guides us.

Strengthening the SUS

Nisia Trindade: Firstly, the strengthening of the Unified Health System, it is through this system, which has shown its importance and this was seen by the population during the pandemic, but which in fact needs adequate funding, a series of actions. In order to improve the health of our population, we will make a concerted effort to resolve situations that I consider to be of great emergency, which have to do with the non-allocation of necessary resources for priority programs.

We had a cut of 60% foreseen in Popular Pharmacy, in indigenous health, in Primary Care, in care focused on diagnostic exams, elective surgeries. It was possible to reverse this situation with the Transition PEC.

We will not have the situation that the SUS needs, but we will be able to carry out essential programs that President Lula advocated in his campaign and that he has been affirming, as is the case of Farmácia Popular, the case of an emergency plan that we are preparing to discuss with states and municipalities in order to reduce the queue, which was the biggest impact of the pandemic – it was not only the Covid disease, but also this issue of not having the exams in the right time, the treatments in the right time, adding to the shortages that already existed in the system.

So, we will be working on all these fronts, dedicated to recovering Primary Health Care, so that comprehensive health, that care for the health of the population, especially as the president has been saying, is attentive to social inequality in terms of access to health.

Other actions

Nisia Trindade: The Ministry of Health will be engaged with the entire government in actions that reduce the major health problems that our society has, guaranteeing access and among the measures already mentioned, alongside the Popular Pharmacy, the reduction of queues, vaccination.

At this first moment, we are going to work to restructure the entire ministry to reinforce dialogue with states and municipalities, with parliament and, above all, thinking about actions that give structure and strength to our Unified Health System: access to services and goods and strengthening of Brazil’s autonomous capacity in the field of science, technology and innovation in health. Brazil also needs to overcome these challenges with vaccines, inputs and equipment.

This integrated vision of health, of the care of our population, is what we will be working on, always willing to dialogue, because we have the search for scientific evidence to base public policies and I believe that this is only possible with the strengthening of public communication and of dialogue with society.