A judge in Brazil’s highest court on Friday ordered that President Jair Bolsonaro be investigated for comments he made associating COVID-19 vaccines with AIDS, a claim rejected by doctors and scientists.
Federal Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes instructed the country’s chief prosecutor, Augusto Aras, to investigate the accusation raised by an investigation into the pandemic conducted by the Brazilian Senate.
Bolsonaro said in an October 24 broadcast that “official UK government reports indicate that fully vaccinated people … are developing acquired immunodeficiency syndrome much faster than anticipated.” Facebook and Instagram withdrew that video days later, considering that it violated their rules.
The Brazilian president, who remains unvaccinated against COVID and has frequently opposed vaccination mandates, argued that he was merely quoting an article from Exame magazine and making no claims.
In his order, Moraes said that Bolsonaro “used the modus operandi of mass dissemination schemes on social networks,” which requires further investigation.
However, the future of any investigation is uncertain. It is rare for Aras to go against the president, and he has not opened an investigation into Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic, despite requests from the Senate committee.
Bolsonaro has circumvented local health protocols since the start of the pandemic, complaining that restrictions aimed at controlling the coronavirus do more harm than good.
More than 610,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Brazil, a national total second only to that of the United States. The seven-day death average in the South American country is less than 300 a day, which analysts have largely attributed to vaccination campaigns.
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