Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro contradicted an announcement Wednesday through his own fitness minister, saying he did not approve of the acquisition of about $360 million from China’s coronavirus vaccine candidate CoronaVac, saying that “the other Brazilians will not be anyone’s guinea pig. “
He launched it on his social media accounts on Wednesday, a day after Brazil’s Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello joined Sao Paulo Governor Joo Doria to announce an initial agreement to purchase 46 million doses of the vaccine developed through SinoVac, which is being tested. in Brazil’s most populous state.
“Of course we’ll buy the Chinese vaccine,” Bolsonaro said in a Reuters translation, adding that the candidate is still undergoing a protective test.
Brazil has already reached an agreement to purchase one hundred million doses of the AstraVeneca vaccine it signed this summer; like all other candidate coronavirus vaccines in development, no protective tests have been completed.
Bolsonaro’s rejection of the Chinese vaccine would possibly be motivated by his rivalry with Doria, critics say, pointing out in his social media posts that he called the CoronaVac candidate a “Chinese Joao Doria vaccine,” according to a Bloomberg translation.
While Doria supported Bolsonaro’s candidacy for the presidency in 2018, the two have been banging their heads since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, as Bolsonaro opposed social estating measures put in place through Brazil’s top governors.
Pazuello is the third to bear the name of Minister of Health since the beginning of the pandemic, after two others who clashed with Bolsonaro over coronavirus lock-ups and the use of unproven remedies to treat the disease, such as hydroxychloroquine, whose president himself infected.
The coronavirus outbreak in Brazil is one of the worst in the world, with 5. 2 million cases shown and almost 155,000 deaths, according to knowledge compiled through Johns Hopkins University, it is the most affected country in the world at the time after from the United States. He continued to downplay the risks of the virus, even after testing positive in July.
Bolsonaro from Brazil rejects Chinese COVID-19 vaccine (Associated Press)
Bolsonaro criticizes Chinese vaccine he said he would buy (Bloomberg)
Bolsonaro from Brazil says his government will buy Sinovac vaccine from China (Reuters)
Full policy and updates on coronavirus
I’m from Texas and I cover the latest news from New York. Previously, I was an editorial assistant at Forbes’ London office.