RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Rumors and conspiracy theories circulated last week about the whereabouts of Zé Gotinha, the mascot for the national vaccination program.
The noise surrounding the Zé Gotinha suit began on Wednesday, after former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva drew attention to his recent absence.
“Where is our lover Zé Gotinha?” da Silva said in a speech criticizing the way President Jair Bolsonaro treated the pandemic.
Zé Gotinha, whose name roughly translates as “Joe Droplet” and resembling a Casper the Ghost Ghost, was created in the 1980s to help the Ministry of Health promote polio vaccination and relax children.
“Vaccine advertisements had been very heavy. They were associated with something terrible, tragic, life-threatening, “Carla Domingues, former coordinator of the national vaccination program between 2011 and 2019, told the Associated Press.
Gotinha changed this and, due to its success, made regular appearances to warn about the importance of preventing measles, tuberculosis, whooping cough, diphtheria and, more recently, COVID-19.
But the last time Gotinha was seen in public at a ceremony in Brasilia was on December 16, launching the country’s vaccination program. The character, much loved by children, refused Bolsonaro’s attempt to shake hands in the name of social distancing.
Da Silva, a leftist who is Bolsonaro’s rival, presented his own theory of what happened to Gotinha: “Bolsonaro fired him because he thought he was from the Workers’ Party.”
One theory is that pet advertising services may not be needed at this time, as Brazil uses its limited doses to vaccinate the elderly and people in priority groups who are not yet children.
Many social networks speculate about Gotinha’s fate. One person talked about the drama of Gotinha being unemployed. Another reinterpreted a typical poster of a missing child, with the image of the mascot and the legend “disappeared”.
“Encouraging the rapid recovery of Zé Gotinha. Only this hero can save us “, said a Twitter user who speculated that the mascot could suffer from a disease.
Since coronavirus vaccinations began in Brazil, Bolsonaro has questioned their effectiveness. Recently, he began to go back with such skepticism, but continues to claim that drugs such as hydroxychloroquine can help prevent hospitalization, although they have not shown benefits in rigorous studies.
Due to low supply and slow launch, almost 5% of Brazilians have received at least one vaccine so far, according to the Brazilian National Council of Secretaries of State. But 79% of Brazilians want to be vaccinated, according to a survey published by the Datafolha poll on January 23. This is 6 percentage points compared to the previous survey in December.
On Friday, a drawing of Gotinha appeared on social media to Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president’s son and federal parliamentarian. The mascot was depicted holding an assault rifle-shaped syringe. “Our weapon is the vaccine,” the MP wrote.
Gotinha’s creator, artist Darlan Rosa, was horrified.
“(Gotinha) was conceived as an educational character. There is nothing educational about a weapon, “Rosa told Folha de S.Paulo. Carlos Latuff, another cartoonist, drew a picture of Gotinha tearing a rifle over his knee.
Domingues, the former coordinator of the vaccination program, said Gotinha is an integral part of the vaccination efforts.
“Gotinha was thinking of making vaccination a children’s holiday and it was a great success,” Domingues said. “He was one of the main people responsible for a change of perspective on immunization.”