Jair Bolsonaro is suspicious of covid vaccines and Brazil is falling behind

Photographer: Dado Galdieri / Bloomberg

All over the world these are presidents and prime ministers scramble to score precious vials of Covid vaccine to protect citizens and gain political favor. Not the Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro.

The president, who has belittled the pandemic from the start, refuses to be vaccinated, pooh-poohs the need to negotiate with drug 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 it vaccines – information he has obtained from polluting people on the street and on the beach.

“It makes no sense, these are experimental vaccines without scientific evidence. You cannot impose this on people, ”said Bolsonaro. “We have to be responsible, we can’t go with the crowd and say we have to hurry.”

His resignation is quickly leaving Brazil behind in the global race to immunize against a virus killed nearly 1.9 million people, 200,000 of them in Brazil. While neighboring countries Argentina, Chile and Mexico have started deploying shots, Brazil doesn’t even have a clear timeline to do so. Companies have been slow to submit requests to the local regulator, who has 10 days to remove the photos before they can be distributed. The talks with Pfizer Inc. took two months.

Vaccinations begin in Latin America, where Covid hit the hardest

Like US President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro nods to his base in times of crisis. At the height of the pandemic, he threw himself into crowds and hugged his supporters – much to the horror of local officials who tried to impose restrictions. As criticism grew, Bolsonaro stuck to his position that the economic toll was more important than the disease. He called those involved “sissies” and insisted that chloroquine – not proven as a treatment – was the solution.

Bolsonaro, who got it self-infected and recovered, started a $ 60 billion cash-out program that reduced poverty and raised his 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 doesn’t share the same basic facts as others, and has a foundation that is completely hypnotized.”

With nearly 8 million cases, Brazil is one of the hardest hit countries in the world. It was expected to vaccinate better given its deep experience with its once heralded public health system known as SUS. It has 35,000 outposts and, despite the pandemic, reached 90% of its targeted flu shots by 2020.

The country also has two renowned institutions that have made deals to produce vaccines locally: Instituto Butantan and Fiocruz, which have partnered with Sinovac and AstraZeneca, respectively. And despite what the president said, 73% of the public says they want to be vaccinated.

Both settings requests submitted for emergency use of vaccines with the regulator on Friday.

Over 17.5 Million Shots Given: Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker

The lack of action from the central government has left Brazil’s 27 states with limited resources to chase deals around the world. Richer states could take a leap forward, increasing the inequalities exposed by the pandemic.

Lamentations over the inactivity of the federal government have brought Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello into action. The third man occupied the post since the crisis – a military general with no medical background – he harshly rejected criticism this week, saying Brazil had safeguarded 354 million doses of vaccines and that all states would be treated equally. The government, which had bet on the AstraZeneca-Oxford shot, agreed to include China Sinovac is pushing the plans despite Bolsonaro’s public objections to them “because of its origins.”

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

He also said no vaccines were available on the open market for a population of 210 million – to admitIn fact, it was clear that Brazil had failed to seek them early – and so the country should make its own.

The government is negotiating with pharmaceutical companies that think about the well-being of all Brazilians, the Ministry of Health said in an email. It added that there is no conclusion yet whether one dose of vaccine is sufficient to maintain immunity in the long term and that it will follow the guidelines of the companies producing the injections.

The presidency said it would not respond outside of Bolsonaro’s webcast and the minister’s press conference.