RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Rumors and conspiracy theories have been circulating over the past week about the whereabouts of Zé Gotinha, the mascot of the national vaccination program.
The uproar surrounding costumed Zé Gotinha started Wednesday, after former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva drew attention to his recent absence.
“Where is our beloved Zé Gotinha?” da Silva said in a speech criticizing President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic.
Zé Gotinha, whose name roughly translates as “Joe Droplet” and resembles an overgrown Casper the Friendly Spirit, was founded in the 1980s to help the Health Department promote polio virus vaccination and put children at ease .
“The ads about vaccines had been very tough. 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 that and, due to his success, has since appeared regularly to warn of the importance of preventing measles, tuberculosis, whooping cough, diphtheria and, most recently, COVID-19.
But the last time Gotinha was seen in public at a ceremony in Brasilia was December 16, when the country’s vaccination program was launched. Much loved by children, the character refused Bolsonaro’s attempt at handshake in the name of social detachment.
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 belonged to the Workers’ Party.”
One theory is that the mascot’s publicity services may not be necessary at this point, as Brazil is using its limited doses to vaccinate the elderly and those in priority groups, not yet children.
Many on social networks speculate about Gotinha’s fate. One person talked about the drama of Gotinha being out of work. Another reinterpreted a typical missing child poster, with the mascot image and the caption “disappeared”.
“Cheering for Zé Gotinha’s speedy recovery. Only this hero can save us, ”said a Twitter user who speculated that the mascot is suffering from a disease.
Since the coronavirus vaccinations began in Brazil, Bolsonaro has questioned their effectiveness. He recently began to regress such skepticism, but continues to argue that drugs such as hydroxychloroquine can help prevent hospitalization, although they have shown no benefits in rigorous studies.
Due to low supplies and slow rollout, nearly 5% of Brazilians have received at least one vaccination syringe so far, according to Brazil’s National Council of State Secretaries for Public Health. But 79% of Brazilians want to be vaccinated, according to a poll published Jan. 23 by pollster Datafolha. That is 6 percentage points higher than the previous survey in December.
On Friday, a drawing of Gotinha appeared on social media of Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president’s son and a federal lawmaker. The mascot was depicted with an assault rifle-shaped syringe. “Our weapon is the vaccine,” the legislator wrote.
Gotinha’s creator, artist Darlan Rosa, was shocked.
(Gotinha) was conceived as an educational character. There’s nothing educational about a gun, ”Rosa told Folha de S. Paulo newspaper. Carlos Latuff, another cartoonist, drew a picture of Gotinha breaking a gun over his knee.
Domingues, the former vaccination program coordinator, said Gotinha was an integral part of the vaccination efforts.
“Gotinha was conceived to make vaccination a holiday for children, and it was a great success,” Domingues said. “He was one of the most important people responsible for a change of perspective on immunization.”