[ad_1]
President Jair Bolsonaro said today that no one can be forced to receive a vaccine in response to a supporter who apparently called on the federal government to ban vaccination against covid-19 amid a global race to treat the disease caused by new coronavirus.
“No one can force anyone to get vaccinated,” Bolsonaro said at the entrance to the Palácio da Alvorada early in the evening, in response to a supporter who asked him not to allow “this vaccine business,” saying it was dangerous, according to a video posted. on social media.
Earlier this month, by signing a provisional measure that opened a budget credit of 1.9 billion reais for the purchase of 100 million doses and subsequent local production of the possible vaccine against covid-19 developed by the British laboratory AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, Bolsonaro said that vaccination would solve the problem caused by the pandemic.
This Monday, the interim Minister of Health, General Eduardo Pazuello, visited Fiocruz (Oswaldo Cruz Foundation) in Rio de Janeiro to follow the vaccine delivery schedule. Initially, Fiocruz will be in charge of finalizing the doses from imported inputs, and then it will be in charge of national production.
The government’s forecast is that the first doses will be distributed starting in early 2021. Simultaneously, the São Paulo government is working on the development of another vaccine with the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech, which is also expected to distribute early next year. . year.
The president of Fiocruz, Nísia Trindade Lima, said that the foundation is in talks with Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) to accelerate the process, given that Brazil is the second most affected country in the world by the pandemic, with more than 3 , 9 million confirmed cases and more than 121,000 deaths.
“Fiocruz is mobilizing all its technological and industrial resources in favor of the population’s access to the vaccine in the shortest possible time. We are talking with Anvisa and technological partners to reduce the production, registration and distribution times of the vaccine,” he said . the president of Fiocruz, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health.
Despite the government’s promise to start local production of the vaccine from April 2021, experts heard by Reuters said the schedule will hardly be met, citing difficulties in a complex technology transfer process.
According to the ministry, the government will sign a technology order agreement this week with AstraZeneca, after the parties signed a memorandum of understanding last month.
