RIO DE JANEIRO – Last month, Dr. Riane Azevedo pulled off a master stroke. The superintendent of the largest public hospital in the poor Brazilian state of Ceara managed to procure a highly sought-after cache of ventilators to treat the new coronavirus patients overwhelming her intensive care unit.
But just weeks before she was due to receive the ventilators, she got bad news. Her local supplier could no longer honor the agreement.
Instead, she was told, the equipment was going to Brazil’s federal government. “The health ministry confiscated the ventilators for our hospital,” said Azevedo from the Instituto Dr.
José Frota hospital, where she had planned to open up another 40 ICU beds in May. “It makes no sense … It’s like working against