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Of: TT
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Photo: Eraldo Peres / AP / TT
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is critical of the covid-19 vaccine. Stock Photography
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro mocks the covid-19 vaccine and is accused of sabotaging the country’s chaotic mass vaccination campaign.
Although Brazil is one of the most affected countries, the vaccine is delayed.
President Jair Bolsonaro suggests that the Pfizer and Biontech vaccine may have unexpected side effects.
– In the Pfizer contract, it is very clear: “We are not responsible for any side effects.” If you turn into a crocodile, it’s your problem, Bolsonaro said Thursday.
– If you become superhuman, if a woman begins to grow a beard or if a man begins to speak with a female voice, then (the pharmaceutical companies) will have nothing to do with it, he added.
“The train has gone”
Brazil has the world’s leading vaccination experts, medical institutions, and vaccine research. Much of the Astra Zeneca vaccine is manufactured in Brazil by the Fiocruz Institute, and the Brazilian state is negotiating the purchase of 210 million doses of that vaccine.
But the president does not seem to have been impressed by the country’s experience.
“Bolsonaro has wasted a lot of time in his denials,” José David Urbaéz, of the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases, told AFP.
A vaccination campaign was launched on Wednesday, the aim of which is to vaccinate 70 percent of the population in 16 months. However, experts describe the program as chaotic, noting that negotiations with pharmaceutical companies have started too late and that the necessary applications for emergency approvals have not yet been submitted.
The country missed the first train of Pfizer-Biontech and Moderna vaccines, says Luiz Gustavo de Almeida, a microbiologist at the University of São Paulo:
“They will have to wait for the next train, and it will not be until March, April, May 2021. Those who are not in a risk group will probably not start getting vaccinated until 2022,” he tells AFP.
Sick in july
The right-wing leader has been skeptical of COVID-19 from the start, calling the disease “the little flu.” Bolsonaro himself was infected with the coronavirus in July and this week he announced that he has no intention of getting vaccinated.
The president is accused of repeatedly sabotaging Brazil’s mass vaccination program.
His way of poking fun at the possible side effects of the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine, which has already been approved and used in the United States and the United Kingdom, among others, may have contributed to his followers turning a deaf ear. In an opinion poll by Datafolha, the proportion of Brazilians who are prepared to be vaccinated against covid-19 has fallen, from 89 percent in August to 73 percent in December.
In absolute numbers, Brazil has registered the second highest number of deaths in the world linked to covid-19, after the United States. To date, more than 185,000 people have died in the country since they became ill and at least 7 million have been infected with the virus.
Per million inhabitants, Brazil has almost 870 deaths, which can be compared to about 750 in Sweden.
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