Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, and a senior health official said Wednesday on Facebook that the federal government will not buy chinese firm Sinovac’s vaccine for coronavirus, a day after his health minister claimed it would be included in the country’s immunization program.
The turn, following comments on social media against China by some of Bolsonaro’s supporters, exposes a debate about vaccine policy between the president and key governors, who have sought alternatives to the federally prioritized AstraZeneca vaccine.
On Tuesday, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said at a meeting with governors that his portfolio would buy the Sinovac vaccine to add to the immunization program, along with that of AstraZeneca/Oxford. The inclusion would be subject to the approval of the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), he added.
The Ministry of Health reported Wednesday that Pazuello tested positive for the virus. He is the newest member of the administration, including Bolsonaro, who is infected with SARS-CoV-2.
The Butantan Institute, a biomedical research center in the state of Sao Paulo, is testing the Sinovac vaccine. The governor, Joao Doria, said he expects regulatory approval by the end of the year to start vaccinations in January.
Bolsonaro stated Wednesday that Pazuello had been misunderstood during the meeting with the governors. “Of course, we won’t buy the Chinese vaccine,” Bolsonaro wrote on social media, responding to a supporter who urged him not to buy it.
Subsequently, the executive secretary of the Ministry of Health, Elcio Franco, argued that all vaccines should go through federal health approval channels, but that the government had no interest in “Chinese vaccines”.
Doria, who announced Tuesday that the federal government had agreed to buy 46 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine, opposed that stance on Wednesday. “The vaccine is what’s going to save us, it’s going to save us all,” he told reporters.
“It’s not ideology, it’s not politics, it’s not a choice that will save us. It’s the vaccine,” added Doria, who is seen as a potential Challenger of Bolsonaro in the 2022 presidential election.
Brazil is among the world’s hardest-hit nations by the pandemic, with more than 5 million infections and nearly 155,000 COVID-19 deaths, according to a Reuters count.
The inclusion of the vaccine developed by Sinovac, called CoronaVac, in a nation’s national vaccination program of 230 million people would be a huge success for the Chinese firm in what could be one of the world’s first immunization efforts against coronavirus.
The Brazilian government already plans to buy the AstraZeneca vaccine and produce it at its FioCruz biomedical research center in Rio de Janeiro.
The Butantan Institute indicated Monday that preliminary results from late-stage coronavac clinical trials in 9,000 volunteers show that the Chinese two-dose vaccine is safe. Butantan director Dimas Covas said efficacy data will not be published until the trials are completed.
