Corona Daily 074: The World Filled with Ex-Health Ministers

The pandemic for health ministers began with Yelzhan Birtanov of Kazakhstan. Holding the post since early 2017, he tested positive in June 2020. He tweeted he had developed pneumonia which required serious treatment, and resigned.

The next month, David Clark, New Zealand’s health minister took his family to the beach. They also drove to a mountain biking track. In his professional capacity, Clark had imposed border closures and strict lockdown measures. When found out, he called himself an idiot, and resigned.

Also in July, Zafar Mirza, Pakistan’s de facto health minister was accused of having a foreign passport. In his asset declaration, he had not revealed it. His dual nationality doomed his job.

*****

In January 2021, USA’s Alex Azar had to go along with Trump. Strangely, his resignation letter included text urging Donald Trump to promote a peaceful transition in view of the Capitol riots the previous week.

In the same month, protests erupted in Mongolia. The nation saw the inhuman treatment of a covid-19 patient and her newborn baby. Video footage showed the patient, in her nightgown and slippers, was forcibly relocated with her baby to a quarantine facility. Both the Prime Minister and the health minister of Mongolia resigned “assuming responsibility upon themselves and accepting the demand of the public.”

In February, Latin America had a large wave, in which the health ministers of Ecuador, Argentina and Peru had to resign.

Ecuador’s Juan Carlos Zevallos resigned after his interference in the vaccination trial was revealed. Among other things he had conducted inoculation at his mother’s nursing home from the vaccine trial doses.

Gines Gonzales Garcia, Argentina’s health minister, started the vaccination drive with his friends, associates and other political figures. This didn’t go well with the public.

In a similar case, Peru had vaccinated 500 government officials secretly before the public. Pilar Mazzetti, a lady health minister said she didn’t know anything about it. She not only knew, but was vaccinated secretly herself. She had to go.

*****

In March 2021, in Jordan King Abdullah and his son were visiting a hospital where at least seven people died when their oxygen supply ran out. The king was very angry and said things can’t be dealt with this way. Following that Nathir Obeida, the health minister had to resign accepting moral responsibility for the incident.

In the same month, Marek Krajci, Slovakia’s health minister was ousted. The entire cabinet including the prime minister had to resign following the scandal about secret imports of Sputnik V. I have covered this story in detail earlier.

 In April 2021, an oxygen tank exploded causing a fire at a Baghdad hospital. The fire left 82 people dead. Hassan al-Timini, the health minister of Iraq offered his resignation.

In the same month, Rudolph Anschober, (photo above), Austria’s health minister resigned. He had taken up this job a few weeks before the start of the pandemic. He said his 15 months felt like 15 years. He was overworked and exhausted. Facing death threats, he was under police protection since November. His blood pressure and sugar had gone up, and he was diagnosed with an early stage tinnitus. This was the occupational hazard for any health minister in a pandemic.

*****

In the competition for the highest number of resignations, Czech Republic currently leads Brazil. Vojtech was the first to go for lack of a pandemic strategy. Roman Prymula was dismissed after he was photographed visiting a restaurant that should have been shut. Jan Blatny was fired over his handling of the pandemic. Last week, Petr Arenberger resigned. The tax department found his income and assets grew suddenly after he became a minister.

In Brazil, so far, three health ministers have lost their jobs.

The list is longer with Poland, Paraguay and others. UK’s Matt Hancock saved himself – yesterday was the first day in a year when UK had not a single covid death.

*****

Harsh Vardhan (India), Mikhail Murashko (Russia), Saeed Namaki (Iran) and Jorge Varela (Mexico) have been the health ministers of their respective countries throughout the last eighteen months.

The reasons for their not resigning are not known.

Ravi