A day before, on Tuesday, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello had confirmed that Brazil would buy the vaccine developed by Sinovac to include it in the immunization program, in addition to one developed by the UK-based AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
Bolsonaro said on social media, “For sure, we will not buy the Chinese vaccine,” because it is unjustifiable to pay billions for a vaccine that has not been through its testing phase. He also said, that it would be a betrayal to buy Chinese vaccine.
The President also said that he would not allow the Brazilan people to be anyone’s ‘guinea pig’. Both Brazil President and Health Minister have been infected by novel coronavirus.
In a calibrated response, China said that businesses and institutions of both the countries have been cooperating on phase 3 clinical trials of vaccine and such cooperation will contribute to the final victory over the virus.
Brazil has been among the world’s hardest-hit nations by the pandemic, with more than 5 million infections and more than 150,000 COVID-19 deaths. Inclusion of the Sinovac vaccine, called CoronaVac, in the national vaccination program of a country like Brazil, with 230 million people would have been a major success for the Chinese pharmaceutical company.
Earlier, Bangladesh had rejected co-financing of the phase 3 trial of the Sinovac made Corona vaccine.
ANSHUMAN MISHRA/ /BEIJING // 22-10-2020