Jair Bolsonaro does not trust Covid vaccines and Brazil lags behind

Photographer: Dado Galdieri / Bloomberg

All over the world, presidents and prime ministers are crushing to get precious bottles of Covid vaccine to protect citizens and gain political favor. Not the Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro.

The president, who has eased the pandemic from the start, refuses to be vaccinated, pooh-poohs have to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies and says the country will wait for prices to drop before buying syringes or needles. On Thursday, he said Brazilians don’t even want to vaccines – information obtained by probing people on the street and on the beach.

“It is absurd, these are experimental vaccines without scientific evidence. You can’t impose that on people, “Bolsonaro said. “We have to be responsible, we can’t go with the crowd saying we have to hurry.”

His dismissal quickly leaves Brazil behind in the global immunization race against a virus that killed nearly 1.9 million people, including 200,000 in Brazil. While neighboring Argentina, Chile and Mexico have begun to take photos, Brazil does not even have a clear timeline for doing so. The companies were late in sending requests to the local regulator, which has 10 days to remove the photos before they can be distributed. Discussions with Pfizer Inc. they continued for two months.

Vaccinations begin in Latin America, where Covid has hit hardest

Like US President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro nods at his base in times of crisis. At the height of the pandemic, he plunged into the crowds, hugging supporters – to the horror of local officials trying to impose restrictions. As criticism grew, Bolsonaro maintained that the economic tax was more important than the disease, calling those concerned “sissies” and insisting on chloroquine – unproven as a treatment – was the solution.

Bolsonaro, who received it became infected and recovered, set up a $ 60 billion program that reduced poverty and raised the approval rating to a record high.

“Bolsonaro is a denier,” said Deysi Cioccari, a political scientist at the Catholic University of Sao Paulo, explaining his approach. “He does not share the same set of basic facts as others and has a base that is completely mesmerized.”

With almost 8 million cases, Brazil is among the most affected countries in the world. He expected to get a better vaccination, given his deep experience with his public health system, known as SUS. It has 35,000 outposts and has reached 90% of its planned influenza vaccines by 2020, despite the pandemic.

The country also has two well-regarded institutions that have entered into agreements to produce vaccines locally – Instituto Butantan and Fiocruz, in partnership with Sinovac and AstraZeneca, respectively. And despite what the president said, 73% of the public say they want to be vaccinated.

Both institutions applied for emergency use of vaccines with the regulator on Friday.

More than 17.5 million photos given: Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker

The lack of action on the part of the central government has left Brazil’s 27 states alone with limited means to hunt down the globe for transactions. Wealthier states can jump ahead, exacerbating the inequalities revealed by the pandemic.

Complaints about the inaction of the federal government pushed Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello into action. The third man who He took office after the crisis – a military general with no medical history – harshly rejected criticism this week, saying Brazil had provided 354 million doses of vaccines and that all states would be treated equally. The government, which bet on the AstraZeneca-Oxford shot, agreed to include China Sinovac stimulated the plans, despite Bolsonaro’s public objections “because of his origins.”

But Pazuello also spread misinformation. At a press conference on Thursday, he said that the AstraZeneca vaccine requires only one injection and that the second dose is only to increase the effectiveness to 100%, from 70%, which is not correct.

He also said that there are no vaccines available on the free market for a population of 210 million – admitclaiming, in fact, that Brazil failed to look for them early – and so the country will have to make its own.

The government is negotiating with pharmaceutical companies thinking about the well-being of all Brazilians, the Ministry of Health said in an e-mail. He added that there is still no conclusion on whether a dose of vaccine is sufficient to support long-term immunity and that it will follow the guidelines of the companies that produce the vaccines.

The presidency has said it will not comment beyond Bolsonaro’s internet broadcast and the minister’s press conference.