Brazil, one of the world epicenters of the covid-19 pandemic, received this Friday from India two million doses of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the Anglo-Swedish laboratory AstraZeneca.
The first doses of said vaccine arrived in Brazil a week later than was initially planned by the Government of President Jair Bolsonaro, one of the most denialist leaders about the severity of the pandemic and who has come to question the efficacy of the antigens.
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The vaccines were received at the Sao Paulo international airport by the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Ernesto Araújo, and by the Minister of Health, General Eduardo Pazuello, at a time when the country faces a second wave of the health crisis.
The immunizers were transferred to Rio de Janeiro, where the headquarters of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) is located, the main medical research center in Latin America and which will be responsible for the production of this antidote in Brazilian territory.
The doses of the Oxford vaccine were shipped from India after the authorization granted by the Government of Narendra Modi, which held them for a week due to the start of vaccination in the Asian country.
“Brazil is honored to have a great partner to overcome a global obstacle. Thank you for helping us with the exports of vaccines from India to Brazil,” Bolsonaro said in a message on his social networks.
The government of the far-right leader hoped to be able to begin the immunization process with the Oxford vaccine, its main bet, but the delay in the arrival of the doses truncated its plans.
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In this way, Brazil began vaccination throughout the country last Monday with Coronavac, the vaccine developed by the Chinese laboratory Sinovac in association with the Butantan Institute, attached to the São Paulo government.
Coronavac was promoted in Brazil by the governor of Sao Paulo, Joao Doria, Bolsonaro’s main political rival and a possible candidate for the 2022 presidential elections, so the start of immunization with the Chinese vaccine was interpreted by many analysts as a political defeat for the leader of the Brazilian extreme right.
In addition to the two million doses of the Oxford vaccine from India, Brazil has six million doses of Coronavac imported from China and another 4.8 million doses of Coronavac manufactured in the South American country by the Butantan Institute, whose emergency use was approved today by the regulatory body Anvisa.
With 214,000 deaths and 8.7 million cases, Brazil is the country with the second highest number of deaths in the world from covid-19 after the United States and the third with the most cases after the North American nation and India.
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EFE
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