Graça Freitas | |
|---|---|
 Freitas in 2020 | |
| Director-General of Health | |
| In office 1 January 2018 – 1 August 2023 | |
| Appointed by | Adalberto Campos Fernandes |
| Preceded by | Francisco George |
| Succeeded by | André Peralta Santos |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Maria da Graça Gregório de Freitas (1957-08-26)26 August 1957 (age 68) |
| Alma mater | University of Lisbon |
| Signature |  |
Maria da Graça Gregório de FreitasGCM (born 26 August 1957) is a Portuguese physician andpublic health specialist who was theDirector-General of Health and inherently thechief medical officer and leading spokesperson on matters of public health inPortugal, between 2018 and 2023.[2] She has work published in the fields ofvaccination,prevention and control of communicable diseases, public health emergencies, andhealth communication.[3]
Before her appointment to the Directorate-General, she served as Deputy Director-General under her predecessorFrancisco George, and coordinated several public health programmes, most notably, since 1996, the Portuguese National Vaccination Programme.[3] She is also a member of the Management Board of theEuropean Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, of theWorld Health OrganizationExpanded Program on Immunization, among other international groups.[3]
Due to her prominent national role during theCOVID-19 pandemic in Portugal, Graça Freitas was included inJornal de Negócios's list of 50 Most Powerful People of 2020,[4] which included both Portuguese and international personalities.
She was born in 1957, inNova Lisboa (present-dayHuambo),[1] inAngola, which was at the time theOverseas Province of Angola, a territory underPortuguese rule. Her father was a civil servant in the Angolan public administration, and her mother ahomemaker.[5] By her own account, the figure of thehealth officer (delegado de saúde), which was very important in that territory, might have drawn her topublic health;[1] alternatively, she also recalls being influenced by two very good friends.[6] Initially, she had considered a career inagriculture orsilviculture, but her parents discouraged it due to it being uncommon to see women inagricultural engineering at the time; in her teenage years, she had also consideredarchitecture.[7]
She enrolled in Medicine at theUniversity of Luanda in 1974, the year of theCarnation Revolution. Angola achieved independence from Portugal the following year through theAlvor Agreement; in 1975, she departed forPortugal[7] and concluded her studies in the Faculty of Medicine of theUniversity of Lisbon in 1980.[3] She specialised inpublic health in 1988, having conducted herpostgraduate training in theHospital de Santa Maria inLisbon and, for eight months, in acommunity primary healthcare unit inPonte de Sor, a rural municipality inAlentejo.[3][7]
Graça Freitas was apublic healthAssistante and anAssistante Graduada (consultant) in theAjudacommunity health centre in 1990 and again between 1992 and 1996; she also worked as thechief health officer inLisbon, and as member of the Group for the Guarantee of Quality of the Lisbon Regional Health Administration.[3] During this time, she took a particularly interest in the vaccination of the people inAjuda andRestelo, which she described as "a sort of a crusade".[7] In 1990–1991, she worked for the Directorate of Health Services ofMacau, where she was achief health officer, the coordinator of the community health centres, and supervised the public healthinternship programme.[3]
After having collaborated withJosé Pereira Miguel in a research project, she was invited to become hisassistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine of theUniversity of Lisbon,[5] and filled the position for over twenty years, from 1995 to 2017.[3] She often delivered her lectures sitting beside her students in theamphitheatre, encouraging discussion.[5] She did not, however, pursue an academic career, or enroll on adoctoral programme.[5] From 2000 to 2004, she also taught at the University's Faculty of Dental Medicine.[8]
In 1996, at the invitation ofJorge Torgal,[6] she joined theDirectorate-General of Health as Head of the Division for Communicable Diseases, and Coordinator of the National Vaccination Programme. From 1998, she also Chaired the Technical Committee on Immunization. In 2005, she was first appointed Deputy Director-General and was entrusted with several different roles: she was responsible for Influenza Pandemic Contingency Plan (2006–2007), for the Services of Epidemiology and Health Statistics (2007–2012), for the Division of Disease Prevention and Control (2007–2009), for the functional axis for the prevention, containment and control ofinfluenza pandemics (2009–2010), for the Services of Disease Prevention and Control (2009–2012), and for the Services of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (2012–2017).[3][8]
In a 2018 interview, Graça Freitas mentioned the2003 SARS epidemic and the "profound anguish" until the causative agent,SARS-CoV, was identified, as the most complicated moment in her career at the Directorate-General of Health. She also recalled having cried as WHO Director-GeneralMargaret Chan announced the start of the2009 swine flu pandemic on live television, as it brought to mind the devastation of the1918 flu pandemic.[7] She stood by the "excessive" stockpiling of the antiviralOseltamivir, as only in hindsight could it be known that the pandemic was to turn out to be much milder than expected.[7]
Graça Freitas succeededFrancisco George as Director-General of Health in 2018, the second woman to fill the position, afterMaria Luísa van Zeller in the 1960s; Freitas had already been filling the position in an interim capacity since George reached the age of retirement in October 2017.[3][7] Immediately after replacing George, she had to deal with a smallchickenpox outbreak; as Director-General she was also responsible for the response to twolegionellosis outbreaks, ameasles outbreak, aninfluenza-related excess mortality and aheat wave.[7]
Graça Freitas took a high-profile role during theCOVID-19 pandemic, and for that reason became a familiar face to the Portuguese public as she featured in daily televised updates on the pandemic, often alongsideMarta Temido,Minister of Health, andAntónio Lacerda Sales, Secretary of State for Health.
She has received criticism for her January 2020 remarks that the disease was no cause for alarm as "there is the smallest chance of person-to-person transmission" and, for that reason, considered "there [was] not a great likelihood such a virus [could] get to Portugal, as even in China the outbreak [had] been contained", calling concerns about a pandemic "a little bit excessive".[9] This was before the first evidence of human-to-human contagion outside China emerged, and before theWorld Health Organization started to acknowledge these dynamics of transmission in late January and early February.[9][10] The first recorded cases ofCOVID-19 in the country were confirmed on 2 March. She would later say she was aware of the seriousness of the situation, but admitted not to have envisioned it to take such dramatic sanitary, economic, and social proportions.[11]
Freitas herself tested positive forCOVID-19 on 1 December 2020, displaying only mild symptoms of the disease.[12] In July 2021, it was reported that she was quarantining at home following a high-risk contact on 9 July, even after having been fully vaccinated, in strict compliance to the guidelines issued by theDirectorate-General of Health.[13]
For her accomplishments as coordinator of the National Vaccination Programme, Graça Freitas was awarded with theMinistry of Health Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Grade, in 2005.[3] In 2002, she received a Commendation (Louvor) from the Minister of HealthAntónio Correia de Campos, "taking into account the quality of her work regardingtransmissible diseases in general and, in particular, those preventable byvaccination."[14] In 1985, she was similarly the recipient of a Commendation due to her work for Lisbon Regional Health Administration's Office for Epidemiology and Studies in containing the lastdiphtheria outbreak in the country.[3]
In 2002, she received a Certificate of Appreciation and medal from theWorld Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, for her contributions to the success of the eradication of indigenouspoliomyelitis in Portugal and in Europe.[3]
Grand Cross of theOrder of Merit (16 January 2023)[15]She is married, and has granddaughters.[11]
Asmoker for over 20 years, she quit smoking in 2000[6] with the help ofvarenicline, motivated byFrancisco George and by the increasing difficulty in climbing the steep incline ofAlameda Dom Afonso Henriques to get to the offices of the Directorate-General of Health.[7]
She practicesplant collecting as a hobby and growscamellias and her favourite flower,orchids. She also enjoys travelling to visitbotanical gardens.[6] An inveterate reader, her favourite book isV. S. Naipaul'sA House for Mr Biswas, which was read to her at the age of four.[6] Her favourite song isEstrela do Mar, byJorge Palma.[6]
She sleeps from 1 a.m. to half-past 5 a.m.[11] The stress of overseeing all matters of public health in Portugal during the COVID-19 pandemic, which she described as "running a marathon on theEverest", made her lose 5 to 6 kilograms in the first month after the start of the outbreak in the country.[11]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
