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Jair Bolsonaro is about to fall into a trap that he set himself. The situation pushes CoronaVac into the lap of the president, baptized by him as “João Doria’s Chinese vaccine.”
After disqualifying the Sinovac laboratory vaccine, tested in Brazil by the Butantan Institute, Bolsonaro informed the Brics heads of state, including the Chinese Xi Jinping, that “Brazil is seeking and working for its own vaccine” against Covid-19.
He was a fool. There is no own immunizer. Bolsonaro was referring to the vaccine developed by the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, in association with the British University of Oxford. It is on this vaccine that the government bets money and its best chips.
The week started with exciting news. But it ended in embarrassment. What appeared to be great news turned out to be a fiasco. First, it was reported that Bolsonaro’s “own vaccine” would be 90% effective. The plateau started fires.
However, strange data came to light. Tests with volunteers in the UK and Brazil indicated that the mean efficacy observed was 62% when two full doses of the vaccine were given in one month.
The 90% efficiency was only achieved in patients who mistakenly received one and a half doses of the vaccine. The scientific community and certification authorities in the United States have taken a step back.
Plagued by questions, AstraZeneca admitted that it will have to run more tests. The prospect of rapidly applying the Oxford-endorsed vaccine in Brazil, which will reach the country through an agreement signed with Fiocruz, rose through the roof.
There are competing vaccines in the square: Pfizer and Moderna, for example. But Brazil was slow to get in line. There is a strong possibility that CoronaVac will be the first vaccine available to Brazilians, in early 2021.
It means saying that Bolsonaro should be condemned by the circumstances to authorize something that he rejected: the purchase of millions of doses of the “Chinese João Doria vaccine” by the Ministry of Health.
General Eduardo Pazuello, supposed Minister of Health, tried to get ahead, signing an agreement with Butantan for the acquisition of 46 million doses of CoronaVac. Bolsonaro ordered to undo, humiliating the auxiliary.
The president even celebrated on social media what he imagined was the fiasco of his political rival. The death of a volunteer who committed suicide was treated as evidence of the failure of the vaccine tested by Butantan.
In addition to disrespecting the family of the deceased volunteer and tapping on the expectation of the “ladybugs” who long for the arrival of vaccines to free them from Covid-19, Bolsonaro managed to set himself a trap.
Little by little, the facts are teaching Bolsonaro that, in terms of vaccines, the difference between political genius and stupidity is that genius has limits. At this point, the captain must coexist with an indoor crowd for Butantan to stumble.
