Coronavirus in Brazil: Bolsonaro warns that there will be no vaccines for everyone

As part of a new confrontation with the Supreme Court (Supreme Federal Court or STF) of Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro says today that there will be coronavirus vaccines for all Brazilians.

“The Supreme Court, with all due respect, took swift action. They don’t even have a vaccine. They won’t have it for everyoneBolsonaro wondered. Yesterday, the STF ruled almost unanimously (10 to 1) governors establish restrictions for residents who do not want to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, effectively settling the debate on the compulsory nature of the vaccine.

For its part, Bolsonaro he played down the decision and called it “harmless” because [la vacunación] early late January, we don’t know how to get everyone’s vaccine by the end of the year. There will then be no restrictive measure ”.

This week, the president signed a decree to US $ 4,000 million for the purchase of vaccines and supplies for him vaccination plan which could start next February. For now, the Brazilian government has a agreement with the AstraZeneca laboratory for 100 million doses, given that Brazil is participating in an international vaccination experiment.

In addition, the state of San Pablo (the most populous in the country) has a contract with the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, to produce its Coronavac in collaboration with the Butantan Institute. In the last hours, Governor Joao Doria (one of the loudest like Bolsonaro’s rival for the 2022 presidential elections) has received the third shipment from the company and the Crown is considered to have 2,000,000 doses out of the 46 million agreed. Despite the crosses between Bolsonaro and Doria, andThe governor said he would start vaccinating his population in January.

Conversations with Pfizer, on the other hand, are locked up National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), the Brazilian regulator. Although Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello has shown interest in the vaccine, the government is negotiating the purchase of 70 million doses– The lab would have met various requirements of Anvisa, as revealed by the minister himself.

According to Pazuello, Pfizer He also made various demands to complete the purchase, including that is not responsible for any collateral damage from the vaccine and that it is not tried by Brazilian courts.

For now, the laboratory could not register the request for emergency vaccine use, which has already been approved in Chile. In the event that this request did eventually materialize, Anvisa would have ten days to authorize it and at that point the vaccine could begin to be applied in Brazil.

For its part, Bolsonaro – Who from the start of the pandemic underestimated the virus, tried to boycott the containment measures imposed by the governors – insists that he no vaccine will be administered And that should be a voluntary option.

Brazil on Thursday recorded the highest number of deaths from Covid-19 in three months, 1,092 deaths, while daily infections reached 70,000, according to data released by the Ministry of Health.