The story behind the photo of Jair Bolsonaro eating pizza on the street in NYC that went viral

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was pictured having dinner standing on a piece of pizza on a New York street on Sunday, a consequence, according to Brazilian press, of his refusal to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Since you are not yet immune, The 66-year-old far-right president, who will attend the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, does not have the health passport required to enter restaurants and other public places in New York, media reported.

“Gastronomy in New York”, joked on Twitter the minister of the Secretariat of the Presidency, Luiz Eduardo Ramos, in a tweet posted on Sunday evening and illustrated with a photo of Bolsonaro enjoying a slice of pizza with several members of his delegation.

“Let’s go for Pizza with Coca Cola“, Wrote on Instagram the Minister of Tourism, Gilson machado.

“Bolsonaro likes to fake simplicity and modesty at times like this (…), but it is not a question of taste or choice, but of an imposition of the law in force in New York ”, explained the famous chronicler Reinaldo Azevedo on the news portal Uol.

As tradition dictates, the Brazilian President will deliver the first speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, although his participation was questioned for a few days.

New York health officials first said the General Assembly Amphitheater is “a congress center“Subject to the same sanitary rules as most confined spaces.

But last Thursday, the president of the General Assembly, Abdallah Chahid, wrote to the delegates of the member states to clarify that it is enough to declare that they are not carriers of the virus (through vaccine, negative test, or no symptoms).

Very criticized for its management of the health crisis, Bolsonaro, who usually says he’s already immune after being infected with the coronavirus last year, has repeatedly stated that it would be “the last brazilian“To receive an anticovid vaccine, which they have already been injected 222 million dose in your country.

After reaching new York On Sunday evening, he had to use the back door to enter his hotel so as not to run into demonstrators waiting for him outside the main entrance shouting “Get out with Bolsonaro!” According to the press.

New York mayor criticizes Bolsonaro

Bolsonaro, who arrived in New York without having been vaccinated, as required by local authorities and recommended by the United Nations, provoking the indignation of the mayor of the city, Bill de Blasio.

During his meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday, the South American president boasted: “I have not yet been vaccinated”he laughed as his interlocutor recommended the British vaccine AstraZeneca to him.

But the New York mayor, Democrat de Blasio, didn’t like Bolsonaro’s attitude too much.

“We need to send a message to all world leaders, including and especially Bolsonaro, from Brazil, that anyone who wants to come must get vaccinated.“, because “we should all be safe together“De Blasio told reporters.

The mayor demanded last week that all members of delegations participating in the United Nations General Assembly, which begins on Tuesday, be vaccinated.

The intervention of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres prevented Bolsonaro from staying in the streets. Guterres alleged that the uneven lack of access to vaccines in developing countries was more permissive with visitors to the multilateral forum’s facilities.

The mayor recalled that the city helps delegates who wish to be vaccinated. “Today we have a vaccination bus outside the UN,” he said before adding that “we are happy to vaccinate everyone and everyone to ensure the safety of the city ”.

(With information from AFP)

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