Bolsonaro has given a rudder and is now promoting vaccination …

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro briefly changed his usual rhetoric and called for “unity” against the pandemic by presenting a vaccine plan against covid-19. This plan includes the Coronavac vaccine developed by the Chinese laboratory Sinovac and rejected out of hand by the Brazilian president. Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said that vaccination could start in mid-February next year.

Bolsonaro assured that the vaccination will allow Brazil “to return to normal”. Just 24 hours before The president compared the coronavirus to rain and took the opportunity to remind that the vaccine will not be administered. “As a citizen it’s one thing and as a president it’s another, but as I have never hidden myself, I say it, I will not take the vaccine. If anyone thinks my life is in danger, it’s my problem and my period “, he warned.

From flu to vaccine

In an act with dozens of people without a mask at the Planalto Palace, Bolsonaro said the vaccine will not be mandatory but will be free for the population. After declaring in April that the pandemic which had already killed more than 182,000 Brazilians was a “flu”, he said on Wednesday: “If any of us exaggerated our positions, it was in an effort to find solutions.”

During the launching ceremony of the national vaccination plan, Bolsonaro, who has traditionally downplayed the severity of the virus and criticized the social isolation measures adopted by governors because of their economic impact, acknowledged that the pandemic “affects” Brazilians “from the start”. “After the storm, the manna. There are 27 governors with one goal, the common good, which is the return to normality,” said the far-right president.

Bolsonaro therefore sought to test an attempt to unite around the Chinese vaccine, at the center of the controversy in Brazil. São Paulo governor Joao Doria, perhaps the most opposed to the president, plans to unilaterally begin vaccination on January 25. “All Brazilians must be treated equally,” Bolsonaro said to applause. The president clarified that vaccines must be approved as safe and effective by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) before they can be applied.

Like the rain

On Tuesday, Bolsonaro warned in São Paulo, after an event that brought together some 5,000 people in the procurement market, that he was not going to apply the covid-19 vaccine. Later in a television interview, the president of Brazil expressed doubts about the safety of the vaccines: “It is written in the package leaflet of the drug that the company is not responsible for the side effects. It turns on a yellow light. Let’s start by asking people, “Are you going to get this vaccine?”

Although the Brazilian president has assured that he is not against the vaccine, he has insisted on the need for a “preventive treatment”, which includes hydroxychloroquine, which has not yet gathered medical evidence of effectiveness.

True to style, Bolsonaro compared the coronavirus to rain because “it will fall on everyone”. “And another thing, whoever takes the vaccine in two, three, four years, is going to have to take it again, otherwise he will be infected again,” he added without any evidence to back up his claims. “You must respect the one who does not want to give it to you”Bolsonaro insisted in a telephone conversation with the Band TV television channel.

Although Brazil’s Supreme Court has already suggested that the state force take the coronavirus vaccine, an issue that will be debated again this week, Bolsonaro has repeatedly opposed declaring his obligation, because “It is not a question of justice, a judge cannot decide whether or not you should be vaccinated”. Meanwhile, Brazil continues to record a very high number of new infections and deaths. In all, the country has 6,970,034 cumulative cases and 182,799 deaths, which maintains it as one of the countries most affected by the pandemic in the world.