RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In a heated speech and not naming China explicitly, President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday insinuated that the novel coronavirus may have been created by the Asian country as part of bacteriological warfare, in yet another bout with the potential to create friction with Brazil’s main vaccine raw material supplier.
“It’s a new virus, nobody knows if it was born in a laboratory or if it was born by some human being ingesting an unsuitable animal. But it is here. The military knows that it is bacteriological and radiological chemical warfare. Are we facing a new war? Which country has grown its GDP the most? I won’t tell you,” he stated.
Although Bolsonaro did not directly mention the Asian country, China was the only nation with a 2.3% increase in Gross Domestic Product in 2020.
The novel coronavirus was first detected in China’s Wuhan province in December 2019, but the country was also the first to control it with very harsh lockdown measures.
There is no evidence that the novel coronavirus arose from some unsuccessful experiment or was deliberately created by China or any other country in a laboratory, either. After an investigation, the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that the most likely scenario is that the virus originated in bats and reached humans through another animal.
The possibility that the coronavirus escaped from the virology laboratory in Wuhan has not been ruled out, but the hypothesis was considered highly unlikely.
This is not the first time Bolsonaro -or his sons or government officials- have made accusations against the Chinese government with no evidence, either over Covid-19 or over issues concerning 5G communications technology.
Last year, amid a dispute with São Paulo governor João Doria (PSDB), Bolsonaro challenged the quality of the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine, produced by Sinovac and bottled in Brazil by the Butantan Institute, linked to the São Paulo state government.
His son, deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSL-SP) referred to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” on social networks, mimicking the stance of former U.S. President Donald Trump, and accused the Chinese government of wanting to spy on the world through the sale of equipment for 5G communications network.
Brazil’s main trade partner, China also supplies the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) needed for packaging CoronaVac, which accounts for 75.9% of the Covid-19 vaccine doses in Brazil, according to Ministry of Health data, and also for the packaging of AstraZeneca’s vaccine by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), responsible for the rest of the country’s immunizations to date.
In his statement, Bolsonaro also expressed annoyance with the Covid CPI (investigative committee), complained that senators asked for records of where he was over the past 50 weekends -the president has been going out, wearing no mask and causing crowds, to visit the outskirts of Brasilia- and referred as “scoundrels” those who speak against the so-called “early treatment” against Covid-19 he advocates, using drugs that are ineffective.
“A scoundrel is anyone who is against early treatment and presents no alternative,” he said.
With information from Reuters