Covid-19: Brazil’s Bolsonaro says he won’t get vaccinated, “Freedom of choice is above everything”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro said in an interview with Jovem Pan that he has decided not to get vaccinated against Covid-19. “I decided not to take the vaccine anymore. I see new studies, my vaccine protection is there, why should I get vaccinated? It would be the same as playing 10 in the lottery to win 2,” he said.

The Brazilian president contracted Covid in July 2020 and was successfully treated with alternative medicines at that time.

As various studies indicate, the naturally acquired immunity is better than all Covid vaccines currently on the market.

This may be one of the reasons why Bolsonaro did not contract Covid when he was in New York with a large delegation at the U.N. Summit, where he gave the opening speech.

His vaccinated health minister Marcelo Queiroga, on the other hand, was so severely infected that he had to be hospitalized while still in New York.

Bolsonaro cited freedom as the reason. “For me, freedom is above everything. If the citizen does not want to be vaccinated, that is his right,” he said in the program Pingos nos Is on Tuesday evening (Oct. 12).

In doing so, he is taking a similar stance as the governors of Texas and Florida, who oppose mandatory vaccinations.

PRESIDENT DOESN’T WANT MANDATORY VACCINATIONS, SUPREME COURT ALLOWS THEM

Although one large-scale scientific study has shown that there is no correlation between vaccination rates and new infections, authorities in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and other Brazilian cities insist on introducing – against Bolsonaro’s desire – these vaccination cards, which many consider dangerous for social cohesion, while creating an upper and lower class of citizens.

They have received permission to do so from Brazil’s Supreme Court (STF), one of the most significant problems facing the Bolsonaro government. The president is therefore embroiled in a permanent dispute with the STF over this question, which has already led to major political outbursts in the country.

Many of the political decisions made by the president are suspended or stopped by the STF Justices, in cases where the president’s decisons are challenged as unconstitutional.

In the view of many critics, Brazil is dealing with a highly politicized Supreme Court, which is diametrically opposed to the original idea of this institution.

However, the political opposition to Bolsonaro does not object to the STF decisions, not least because the opposition has brought most of the suits challenging the president’s actions.

CONTROVERSIAL VACCINE PASSPORT

While Texas bans compulsory vaccination altogether, intellectually and technologically leading European countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and the United Kingdom have either abolished the vaccination card again or not introduced it at all as a result of new findings.

Brazilian mass media still publish vaccination rankings and clap their hands enthusiastically when Brazil “overtakes” one country in terms of vaccination rates.