The Position of the Municipal Public Administration in the Context of the Pandemic: An analysis from the experience of Juiz de Fora/MG

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic demanded the adoption of swift measures by public managers to control the spread of the disease, as the virus had a high rate of transmissibility. Effective, non-pharmacological actions involving social distancing and isolation were widely applied. It was noticed that they provided opportunities for the collision between the rights to free enterprise and health, by restricting the full exercise of commercial activities. These, intrinsically, promote agglomeration of people. It is therefore necessary to assess whether the restrictive measures for the promotion of the rights to health and life were proportional to the preservation of the essential core of free enterprise. The context of the city of Juiz de Fora was chosen for analysis, between the months of February 2020 and December 2021. Data regarding the number of cases and deaths in the municipality on each day of publication of the municipal decrees that conveyed trade-restrictive measures. The research was supported by the theories of fundamental rights and legal arguments, for the rational (argumentative) and proportional investigation of the implementation of fundamental rights, in the face of conflicts in the concrete case. Still, the consequentialist theory was used to assess whether the examination of economic, social and political impacts prevailed. It started from the assumption that the rights inherent to the exercise of economic activity would prevail over the adoption of sanitary control measures. Through the empirical research methodology, combined with qualitative and inference strategies, it was found that the municipal administration of Juiz de Fora, proportionally, privileged the right to health, over free enterprise.