President Jair Bolsonaro publicly denounced an announcement by his Health Minister, General Eduardo Pazuello, to purchase 46 million doses of the Covid vaccine produced by the Chinese Sinovac with the Butantan Institute and linked to the São Paulo government.
"IT WILL NOT BE PURCHASED," Bolsonaro wrote in capital letters on a social network when replying to an internet user who claimed to want "a future, but without interference from the Chinese dictatorship."
"Anything published, without proof, becomes BETRAYAL," reacted the president after another internet user said that Pazuello betrayed him with the agreement.
The declarations are worrying the governors, who are anticipating the vaccine in the next months.
When announcing the declaration during a meeting with governors, the minister referred to the vaccine, whose production contract was closed by São Paulo governor João Doria, as "the vaccine from Brazil."
Doria signed the agreement and announced it on social networks as "victory for Brazil," which triggered the torrent of reactions and ended the following morning, in the president's attack on the agreement.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon