Brazil’s health regulatory agency directors threatened after approving children’s vaccination

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Three days after President Jair Bolsonaro said he would disclose the names of officials who approved vaccination against Covid-19 for children, directors of the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA) reported an increase in physical threats against the agency’s employees.

“ANVISA’s directors and employees who took part in the aforementioned Public Announcement last December 17 (approving vaccination of children) were surprised by social media posts containing threats, intimidation, and insults due to the aforementioned technical decision,” the text states, citing Bolsonaro’s speeches as an aggravating factor.

“These facts have raised concerns and fear among the directors and employees for their physical integrity and that of their families, and have caused apprehension that violent acts could occur at any time.”

The document is signed by ANVISA president Antonio Barra Torres, and directors Meiruze Sousa Freitas, Cristiane Rose Jourdan Gomes, Romison Rodrigues Mota and Alex Machado Campos. The document also mentions death threats against the agency’s employees in October, to prevent the vaccination of children from being authorized.

“Despite the potential and future fulfillment of these claims, the Agency is deeply concerned with the safety of its staff, considering the large number of ANVISA employees spread across Brazil,” the statement said. “It is impossible at this time to dismiss that these servants may be the target of cowardly and criminal actions.”

Last Friday, ANVISA reacted to Bolsonaro’s threats, stating that “its work environment is free of internal pressures and opposed to external pressures” and that it “repudiates and vehemently rejects any threat, explicit or veiled that will constrain, intimidate or compromise the free exercise of regulatory activities and the livelihood of our lives and families: our work, which is to protect the health of citizens.”