At least 9 patients at hospitals operated by Prevent Senior died of Covid-19 whereas they had been unwittingly receiving the experimental remedies, mentioned Bruna Morato, representing 12 nameless docs who labored for the well being care supplier. The firm, which additionally presents non-public medical health insurance, has denied all allegations.
Morato alleged that Prevent Senior hospitals had been used as "laboratories" for research with so-called "Covid kit," containing medication which have been confirmed ineffective for the remedy of Covid-19, reminiscent of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. These research had been allegedly carried out between March and April of 2020.
Patients and family members weren't made conscious these medication had been being administered, and Prevent Senior docs had been pressured internally to prescribe and distribute such medication, Morato additionally claimed. "Very vulnerable elderly patients were told there was a good treatment, but they did not know they were being used as guinea pigs," she mentioned.
These and different claims are at the moment being investigated by the nation's Public Attorney's workplace and by the Civil Police of São Paulo.
The parliamentary fee of inquiry (CPI) is investigating the federal government's dealing with of the coronavirus pandemic. President Jair Bolsonaro has been extensively criticized at residence and overseas for taking part in down the severity of the virus, discouraging vaccination and masks use, and selling the unproven medication.
After the alleged research in March and April of 2020, Prevent Senior started giving the "Covid kit" to patients as a cost-cutting technique, Morato claimed. "According to reports from the doctors, it was much cheaper to make a set of medications available to patients than to hospitalize these patients," she mentioned.
Asked by Sen. Renan Calheiros why docs prescribed the kits to patients regardless of lack of proof of their effectiveness, Morato mentioned that noncompliant docs confronted "reprisal," "punishments" and even firing. "It reached such a regrettable point (...) that the physicians on duty delivered the (Covid) kit to the patients and said: "I would like to provide it to you (the equipment), as a result of if I do not ship it, I can be fired,'" Morato told the CPI.
In a statement sent to CNN, the company denied all accusations and said it was the target of defamation.
"Prevent Senior denies the accusations and repudiates mendacity allegations anonymously filed with Covid's CPI and the press," it said. "The lawyer's testimony to the CPI right this moment confirms that these are unfounded accusations, that are primarily based on truncated or edited messages leaked to the press and can be dismantled all through the investigations."
Morato also claimed that Prevent Senior had established a relationship with doctors and specialists who were advising the federal government, with the intention of shielding the trials from scrutiny. "Prevent Senior was assured that it might not be inspected by the Ministry of Health or different associated our bodies," she mentioned.
The Health Ministry didn't reply to CNN's request for remark.