V.P. Mourão Denies Friction with Bolsonaro Over Vaccine: “President Has Final Decision”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Vice-President Hamilton Mourão denied on Tuesday, November 3rd, that there would be friction with President Jair Bolsonaro over the vaccine against Covid-19.

Last week, Mourão said in an interview to Veja magazine that “of course” Brazil would purchase doses of the Chinese vaccine, the Coronavac, although Bolsonaro rejects this prospect.

“There is no quarrel here. There are opinions that sometimes are coincident and sometimes are not, but the President is the one to decide and he was elected for that”, declared Mourão when asked by journalists upon arrival at the Vice-Presidency.

He stated that he had not discussed the matter with Bolsonaro, but that he believes that the President will do what is best for the population.

“I didn’t discuss it with the President, what I wanted to say is that the vaccine is a Brazilian vaccine. Any vaccine will be produced here in Brazil and, of course, the President will make the decision that is best for the whole Brazilian population, which is his responsibility”, he said.

President Jair Bolsonaro and São Paulo Governor João Doria publicly disagree on the obligation of vaccination against Covid-19. While the President, a candidate for reelection in 2022, says the federal government will not force immunization, the governor of São Paulo, seen as Bolsonaro’s main adversary, has already stated that the vaccine will be mandatory for the state’s residents.

Last month, the President revoked an agreement made by the Ministry of Health for the purchase of 46 million doses of the Coronavac, a vaccine from the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac to be produced by the Butantan Institute.

Mourão also argued for a cautious position with respect to an immunizer against Covid-19. “It is not such an easy thing. Many people are saying that ‘there will be a vaccine at the start of the year’, but this is not easy,” he said.

According to the Vice-President, studies on the vaccine must also determine the priority groups to be immunized, or if there will be contraindications for any part of the population.

Source: Estadão Conteúdo