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Brazil has recorded more than 170,000 coronavirus deaths, according to an AFP tally, behind only the United States.
The president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro. Image: AFP.
BRASÍLIA – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has said he will not get vaccinated against the coronavirus even after he receives approval from his own government.
“I tell them I will not take it (the vaccine),” he said in a video posted on social media Thursday. “It’s my right.”
Brazil has recorded more than 170,000 coronavirus deaths, according to an AFP tally, behind only the United States.
Bolsonaro faces criticism for his handling of the pandemic, which has included downplaying the virus, opposing lockdown measures and relentlessly promoting the drug hydroxychloroquine despite studies showing it to be ineffective against Covid-19.
He himself contracted Covid-19 in early July, and more than half of his cabinet tested positive for the virus in recent months.
Once any treatment is approved by Brazil’s health regulatory authorities, its government “will immediately organize” its purchase and distribution to those who want it, he said in the video.
But he added that he was “sure” that the Brazilian parliament would not make immunization mandatory.
Many nations are pinning their hopes on a vaccine to end the misery of the pandemic, with two strokes on the cusp of approval by authorities after showing 95 percent efficacy in trials.
On Wednesday, the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer delivered the results of its candidate’s tests to the Brazilian health regulators office, a necessary step to approve and register the vaccine.
The Brazilian Ministry of Health has already agreed to buy 100 million doses of a different vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
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