Jair Bolsonaro said he was taken by surprise with the letter from the director-president of the National Health Surveillance Agency, Antonio Barra Torres.
The president said that if he had lived with the admiral, he might not have nominated him for the post.
"I was surprised by his letter, an aggressive letter, there was no reason for that. I said: 'What's behind what ANVISA has been doing?'. Nobody accused anyone of being corrupt," he told Jovem Pan TV.
Barra Torres countered in writing insinuations regarding alleged hidden interests of ANVISA in the vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 years. The agency cleared the use of Pfizer's Covid vaccine in children on December 16.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon