Bolsonaro Mistrusts Covid Vaccines and Brazil Is Falling Behind
(Bloomberg) -- Across the globe, presidents and prime ministers are scrambling to score precious vials of Covid vaccine to protect citizens and gain political favor. Not Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro.
The president, who from the start has belittled the pandemic, refuses to be vaccinated, pooh-poohs any need to negotiate with drug companies and says the country will wait for prices to fall before buying syringes or needles. On Thursday, he said Brazilians don’t even want vaccines -- information he obtained by polling people in the street and at the beach.
“It’s nonsensical, these are experimental vaccines with no scientific evidence. You can’t impose this on people,” Bolsonaro said. “We have to be responsible, we can’t go with the crowd saying we need to rush.”
His dismissal is rapidly leaving Brazil behind in the global race to immunize against a virus that has killed almost 1.9 million people, 200,000 of them in Brazil. While neighboring Argentina, Chile and Mexico have begun 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 clear the shots before they can be distributed. Talks with Pfizer Inc. have dragged on for two months.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/bolsonaro-mistrusts-covid-vaccines-and-brazil-is-falling-behind/ar-BB1cAinW?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=DELLDHP
Trump's brother from another mother.