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The Datafolha survey shows that 22 percent of Brazilians say they will not take any COVID-19 vaccines, up from nine percent in August.
Skepticism towards a COVID-19 vaccine has risen in Brazil in recent months, a new survey showed on Saturday, as the country continues to grapple with high rates of infection and death related to the virus.
The Datafolha polling institute survey found that 22 percent of Brazilians said they would not be willing to receive any COVID-19 vaccines, up from 9 percent in August.
The survey also found that 73 percent of those surveyed planned to take an injection and 5 percent said they did not know if they would. Those numbers were at 89 percent and 3 percent in August, respectively.
President Jair Bolsonaro has expressed doubts and opposition to the use of an inoculant to control the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brazil has the third highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world, with more than 6.8 million infections since the pandemic began. More than 180,000 people have also died, the second highest death toll in the world after the United States.
Bolsonaro has been one of the most prominent skeptics of COVID-19 among world leaders, repeatedly downplaying the severity of the virus, criticizing the lockdowns, and promoting unproven remedies.
In November, he said he would not take any COVID-19 vaccines that were available, adding that he had a “right” to refuse.
Bolsonaro specifically expressed skepticism about the inoculant being developed by China’s Sinovac and produced in conjunction with the Butantan Institute of the São Paulo state government.
According to the Datafolha survey, only 47 percent of those surveyed said they would take a vaccine made in China, while 50 percent said they would not. Three percent said they were undecided.
The data also showed a correlation between rejection of a vaccine and confidence in Bolsonaro.
Thirty-three percent of people who said they always trust Bolsonaro also said they are unwilling to shoot, compared to 16 percent who said they never trust him and are unwilling to shoot either.
Meanwhile, health experts recently condemned Bolsonaro’s apparent attempts to assert control over the country’s independent health regulators, Anvisa, who worry they may politicize the approval of a vaccine.
On November 12, Bolsonaro nominated a retired soldier with no experience in medicine or vaccine development, Jorge Luiz Kormann, to fill one of the five Anvisa director positions.
Kormann would lead a unit responsible for giving the green light to vaccines.
If the Senate confirms Kormann, Bolsonaro’s allies would hold three of the health regulator’s five seats, giving them a majority in all the agency’s decisions.
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