The president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro announced that he will not allow his 11-year-old daughter to be vaccinated against covid-19 despite the fact that the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) authorized the vaccination of boys and girls between 5 and 11 years old. From the medical associations of Brazil they registered some 2,500 deaths of children under 11 years old. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of Brazil asked the Attorney General’s Office to investigate whether Bolsonaro committed any crime in the statements in which he threatened Anvisa’s technical staff.
Against science
“I hope there is no interference from the Judiciary because my daughter will not be vaccinated, I make that very clear; she is 11 years old,” Bolsonaro said about Anvisa’s decision. It is about Laura, the youngest daughter of the president and his wife Michelle Bolsonaro. Since Anvisa authorized the immunization of children under the age of 11, Bolsonaro launched a public campaign against the scientists of the health watchdog. The Brazilian president even He even threatened to publish the names of the workers of the regulatory body so that the population “knows them”.
The far-right president assures that he was not vaccinated against covid-19 and put his vaccination history under state secret. While the Brazilian first lady was vaccinated in New York during the trip made in September on the occasion of the opening of the UN General Assembly. Previously, Michelle Bolsonaro had skipped her turn at the Sistema Unico de Salud (SUS), the Brazilian public network.
Bolsonaro threatens scientists
While from the Supreme Federal Court, the Brazilian supreme court, Judge Ricardo Lewandowski asked the attorney general to investigate whether Bolsonaro committed a crime by threatening Anvisa scientists that authorized vaccination for boys and girls. The intimidation of the scientists was launched by the president during the weekly program that he broadcasts on Facebook.
“I asked, unofficially, the name of the people who approved the vaccine for children from 5 years old. We want to disclose the names of those people so that everyone knows who they are and, obviously, form their judgment,” he said. the mandatary.
From Anvisa they denounced that the organization is the victim of “violent political activism.” The agency issued a statement in which it repudiates and condemns “any threat, explicit or veiled, that constrains, intimidates or compromises the free exercise of regulatory activities.”
According to the newspaper Newspaper, “Anvisa requested but did not receive police protection for its high command and the most exposed technicians”. The agency’s president, Antonio Barra Torres, confirmed that the approval was based on safety and efficacy studies as well as epidemiological data. “Our country presents expressive mortality figures in this age group”said quoted by leaf.
The Minister of Health is not in a “rush”
According to Bolsonaro, the Ministry of Health must issue the regulation of the authorization of childhood vaccination by January 5. Even if In Brazil, the application of the Pfizer vaccine is authorized for boys and girls between 5 and 11 years old, the government still does not have the pediatric doses from that laboratory. So far, at least 12 states have already announced that they will not accept requests for authorization from mothers and fathers or a medical prescription as urged by Bolsonaro.
For his part, the Minister of Health Marcelo Queiroga, chose not to include children under 11 years of age in the national immunization plan against covid and said that in early January it will reveal its decision. Despite the advance of the Ómicron variant in the country, pFor Queiroga “there is no rush” to vaccinate children. The minister also affirmed that the death of boys by covid-19 in Brazil is at “acceptable levels”.
Queiroga’s statements provoked the outrage from medical associations that registered some 2,500 deaths of children under 11 years of age. In line with Bolsonaro, the intention of the ministry is to recommend the vaccine for children under 11 years of age but without making it mandatory and in turn conditioning the inoculation to the presentation of a medical prescription and a consent signed by the parents. Queiroga is the fourth minister to occupy the health portfolio since the beginning of the pandemic. He was appointed in March 2021 to replace Bolsonaro’s army officer and henchman, General Eduardo Pazuello, a military man with no medical experience.
Currently Brazil has 67 percent of the population immunized with the full regimen, while 10 percent of Brazilians have the booster dose.
Since December 11, the digital platforms of the Ministry of Health have been inaccessible after being attacked by hackers. In this context, the data on infections, deaths and progress in vaccination on the website of the Council of Health Secretaries of the states are incomplete.
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