“Not just any soldier did that.” Gouveia e Melo recalls vaccination against covid-19

The admiral recalled the challenges he faced in managing vaccination and regrets the decrease in commentators on the role of the military.

During the IV Defense + Military Health Days, at the Gulbenkian Foundation, Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo recalled the time he coordinated the working group that managed vaccination against covid-19 — the role that brought him into the spotlight and made him a familiar face to the Portuguese.

“That wasn’t just logistics, It wasn’t just an Excel sheet and it wasn’t just any soldier who did that”, he stated, regretting that there is “an attempt or a desire to diminish the role of the Armed Forces”.

“That diminishment is very unfairvery unfair. The Armed Forces were essential in this process. We are the mentors and creators of an emergency coordination cell within the Ministry of Health itself”, he added.

The navy leader also refuted the separation between the military and civil society. “Us we are part of society and a component that was useful and being useful, was used, and successfully”, quotes .

Gouveia e Melo explains that his approach, which included the “psychological shaping of the battlefield”, was essential to success. THE use of camouflage uniform it reinforced authority in society and “was essential for victory”.

The admiral also hopes that the experience with his team will not be forgotten in similar emergency situations that arise in the future and criticizes the “inability to learn“. “We will be unable, in the future, if we find ourselves in this situation again, to start from a better level than the one we started at when this process happened”, he points out.

Gouveia e Melo also states that he had to impose himself against “many capoeiras with many roosters“, referring to interest groups involved in the vaccination process.

The admiral revealed episodes that exemplify the clash between civil and military approaches. One of them involved a request from the Minister of Health’s advisors for “10 defensive points” for the media, to which he responded incisively: “I said I didn’t know what I was talking about, because I was a submariner and I only knew how to attack. As we have our hands on the steering wheel, don’t put your hands on it because it will interfere with driving.”

Regarding the possible presidential candidacy, Gouveia e Melo remains silent and adds that will not give any more interviews until leaving the position of Chief of Staff of the Navy, whose term ends this month.