“Iām not going to get a vaccine, period. If my life is on the line? Itās my problem”.
Before the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court established in December 2020 that the Covid-19 vaccination was going to be mandatory for its population, the countryās president stated the above mentioned. Itās true that vaccination tends to be a personal decision, but itās a dangerous lie to state that itās an individual problem. Besides jeopardizing the health of the risk groups, it also compromises the great effort to end the coronavirus pandemic. Itās interesting to note that the legal punishment of the enforcement of the Covid-19 vaccine is not based on forcing the person to vaccinate but to restrict that personās social performance in actions such as the prohibition of entering a certain establishment or the prevention of registration in a public school.
“We will not buy the vaccine from China and it is my decision. I do not believe that it transmits enough security to the population. There is a very big discredit, because, as said by many, this virus was born there“.
This vaccine, referred to as āthe vaccine from
Chinaā by Bolsonaro, is the CoronaVac. It was produced by the Chinese institute Sinovac and the Butantan institute from SĆ£o Paulo together. Itās not the only vaccine that has been approved in Brazil, but itās the only one that has been applied nationally. Its first application was on the 18th of January in SĆ£o Paulo. Bolsonaro insisted on calling it the Chinese vaccine even though it was fabricated in combination with a Brazilian institute. In addition, we can see in the aforementioned quote that he has the intention of ruining the credibility of the CoronaVac vaccine by trying to establish a link between the āChinese originā and low trustworthiness.
“Death, disability, an anomaly. This is the vaccine that Doria (Governor of the State of SĆ£o Paulo) wanted to force all SĆ£o Paulo residents to take. The president said the vaccine could never be mandatory. One more that Jair Bolsonaro wins“.
Mr. President, is this a game for you?
When one of the Brazilian volunteers of the CoronaVac vaccine unexpectedly died during the vaccineās trial, triggering a temporal suspension of its tests, the aforesaid is what Bolsonaro argued when posed the question of whether Brazil would buy and produce the CoronaVac vaccine if scientists discovered that it was safe and that it made the population immune to the virus. It was later found out that the death of the volunteer didnāt present any type of relation with CoronaVacās immunizing agent.
“Dear Governor of SĆ£o Paulo, no one is going to get your vaccine, alright? Look for another person to do that. And I, who am the government, the money is not mine, it is the peopleās, and it will not buy your vaccine either, alright? Find another one to pay for the vaccine”.
The vaccine referred here is once again CoronaVac. This vaccine was, until the beginning of its application, the object of internal political disputes. Bolsonaro repeated once and again that the vaccine was the Governor of SĆ£o Pauloās, trying to allude to the idea of it not being part of Brazilās united process of immunization. He always made whatever was possible in his hands in order to delay the authorization of this vaccine specifically. We can notice the governmentās resistance to CoronaVac in its non-inclusion in the 2021 National Immunization Plan.
āIn the Pfizer contract, it is quite clear; āwe (Pfizer) are not responsible for any side effects.ā If you turn into an alligator, thatās your problem. If you become Superman, if a woman grows a beard, or if some men start talking with a high-pitched voice, they (Pfizer) have nothing to do with itā.
With this quote, we can see a clear discouragement towards vaccination. Bolsonaro supports his anti-scientific denier posture by providing extreme hypothetical situations whose intention is to inflict the sensation of fear among the Brazilian population. These affirmations can put at risk the part of the population of Brazil who is āblindly in loveā with Bolsonaro, meaning that they believe whatever comes out of the Presidentās mouth without resorting to any type of critical thinking. Scientifically speaking, itās also dangerous to the population as a whole since scientists affirm that a certain percentage of the population needs to be immune in order to achieve the so-called herd immunity.
āThose who are right-wing take chloroquine, those on the left-wing, TubaĆna (soda from SĆ£o Paulo).”
Ever since the coronavirus pandemic started, Bolsonaro hasnāt failed to continuously recommend medical treatments that lack evidence in their efficacy. His favorite medication to prescribe is chloroquine. The ingestion of chloroquine has not been shown to have any medical efficacy and it has been documented that its excessive ingestion may lead to death.

Unfortunately, Jair Messias Bolsonaroās quotes about the coronavirus pandemic do get better than this.
āIām in the risk group. Iāve never neglected it. I knew that one day I would get the virus. Unfortunately, I think almost all of you will get it one day. What are you afraid of? Face it! (…) Iām sorry. Iām sorry about the deaths. People die every day from a number of causes. Thatās life, thatās life.”
āThe virus is like the rain. It comes and you will get wet, but you will not die drowned.”
āThe virus is there, we will have to face it, but face it like a man, man, not a boy. Letās face the virus with reality. Itās life, weāre all gonna die someday.”
When asked about the number of new coronavirus cases that day in Brazil, Bolsonaro replied: āYo, yo, yo, man. I aināt no gravedigger, alright?”
āFrom my athletic track record, if I was infected by the virus, I wouldnāt have to worry. Iād feel nothing. I would be, at most, affected by a little flu or cold, as the well-known doctor of that well-known television said.”
Sources
- https://g1.globo.com/bemestar/vacina/noticia/2020/12/12/veja-a-cronologia-da-disputa-entre-bolsonaro-e-doria-em-torno-da-vacina-contra-a-covid-19.ghtml
- https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-55341716
- https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2021/01/22/vacina-nao-esta-comprovada-cientificamente-diz-bolsonaro-contrariando-o-que-disse-a-anvisa-e-as-provas-obtidas-por-cientistas.ghtml
- https://noticias.uol.com.br/politica/ultimas-noticias/2020/08/08/bolsonaro-pandemia-100-mil-mortes-fala.htm
- https://veja.abril.com.br/politica/inicio-da-vacinacao-muda-jogo-politico-e-aumenta-pressao-sobre-bolsonaro/
- https://www.acidadeon.com/araraquara/cotidiano/coronavirus/NOT,0,0,1577013,e-obrigatorio-ou-nao-tomar-vacina-contra-covid-19-entenda.aspx
- https://g1.globo.com/bemestar/vacina/noticia/2020/12/12/veja-a-cronologia-da-disputa-entre-bolsonaro-e-doria-em-torno-da-vacina-contra-a-covid-19.ghtml