RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro increasingly becomes an opponent of compulsory vaccination, claiming to fight the lessening of civil rights for non-vaccinated people.
On Tuesday morning, June 15, he told supporters waiting for him outside the Alvorada Palace that he will veto the so-called “vaccine passport” bill for Covid-19 – the Certificate of Immunization and Health Security – should the bill be passed by Congress.
“I don’t believe it will be passed in Congress. If it is, I will veto it and Congress will analyze the veto. If it overturns it, then it will become law,” declared Bolsonaro.
Read also: Brazil’s Senate passes bill implementing ‘vaccine passport’
The bill was passed by the Senate last Thursday, by 72 votes to 0, and proceeded to the Chamber of Deputies for a vote.
The president also signaled that Brazilians who, like him, do not wish to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, will have to be content with being barred entry in countries that require immunization.
“Will the vaccine be mandatory in Brazil? It makes no sense. Then some say that in order to travel you have to have a vaccination card. Look, each country has its own rules. If to travel to a given country you have to have been immunized with this or that vaccine and you don’t, then you don’t get in. Now, forcing everyone to be vaccinated, no comments to that…”, he said.
The text approved by the Senate establishes that the certificate will allow people who have been vaccinated or tested negative for Covid-19 or other infectious diseases to circulate freely in public or private spaces where access is restricted to those who have not been vaccinated.