The leader of the opposition in the Brazilian Senate, Randolfe Rodrigues, presented this Friday an appeal for the Supreme Court prohibits President Jair Bolsonaro from divulging false news about childhood vaccination against covid and fine you if you violate the ban.
The request was made at the insistence of the leader of the Brazilian far-right denier on boycotting the vaccination of children between 5 and 11 years old, authorized last Wednesday by the Ministry of Health reluctantly and despite the resistance of the head of state himself.
Since the government announced the inclusion of minors in the national immunization plan, Bolsonaro has questioned the safety and efficacy of the vaccine for children; He has insisted that he will not allow his 11-year-old daughter to be immunized and has urged the parents to desist from that intention.
To support your request, The head of state alleged false information, such as that in Brazil there was no registry of children killed by coronavirus and that no study had demonstrated the efficacy of the anticovid vaccine in minors.
“I filed an appeal for the Supreme Federal Court to prohibit Bolsonaro from spreading fake news about childhood vaccination against covid and for him to impose a daily fine of 200,000 reais (about $ 35,714.3) in case he insists on such conduct” said the opposition senator in a message on Twitter.
“This murderous fury cannot continue,” added the legislator of the Rede Sustentabilidade party and who was vice president of the parliamentary commission that investigated the omissions in the government’s management of the pandemic and that accused the far-right leader of crimes against humanity for his denial attitude.
According to the senator, by lying about childhood vaccination, Bolsonaro “repeats the reprehensible behavior he adopted throughout the pandemic by using the prerogatives of his position to disseminate false information and, thus, sabotage the vaccination against covid.”
“In addition to confusing and misinforming the population about a matter of great importance to the health and life of Brazilians, the fury of the head of the Executive Power against vaccines has repercussions on the actions taken by the Ministry of Health,” he added.
The Ministry, after intense political and medical pressure, announced the immunization of children between 5 and 11 years old almost twenty days after the National Sanitary Surveillance Agency (Anvisa, regulator) authorized the use of the vaccine from the Pfizer laboratory. in Brazil for the population of this age.
The Ministry gave up its initial idea of conditioning the vaccination of children to the presentation of a medical prescription.
The government’s delay in giving its approval was criticized by scientists and doctors, who recalled that another 30 countries are already vaccinating children, and rejected the obstacles with which Bolsonaro tries to delay or prevent the start of the immunization campaign.
The head of state even asked for the disclosure of the names of the Anvisa technicians who authorized the vaccination of children so that they could be publicly censored.
On Thursday, in an interview, he alleged that he was not aware of the death of any child from covid in Brazil and warned, without providing evidence, of “possible collateral effects from 22, 23 or 24 years old”, if the parents decide to vaccinate Today your children against the coronavirus.
“I wonder: does anyone know of a child who has died of covid? I have 10 people in front of me and no one raised their hands, ”said the retired Army captain.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, since the beginning of the pandemic at least 311 minors between the ages of 5 and 11 have died from covid-19 in the South American country, although some medical entities maintain that the figure is higher.
Brazil, the second country with the most deaths and the third with the most covid-19 infections in the world, has accumulated close to 620,000 victims and 22.4 million cases since the start of the pandemic.
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