Brazil, Bolsonaro: “No child has ever died of Covid, I will not vaccinate my daughter”

The president addresses the parents: “Pfizer will not be liable for side effects”

BRAZIL. Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, said he knows no children between 5 and 11 who died of coronavirus and again criticized the childhood vaccination recommended by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) saying he will not vaccinate his daughter. «I ask: does anyone know a child between the ages of 5 and 11 who died of Covid? I have no knowledge of it, ”said the head of state in Brasilia today. “Unfortunately Anvisa has approved vaccines for children between 5 and 11 years old: I mean here that my 11-year-old daughter will not be vaccinated,” added the former army captain.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Health has given the green light to vaccinate children between the ages of 5 and 11, without requiring a medical certificate, as Bolsonaro wanted. The ministry’s decision was announced after an online consultation and hearing with specialists referencing Anvisa’s recommendation to vaccinate children with Pfizer drugs. “You parents must know that Pfizer is not responsible for the side effects and Anvisa herself says that children can have shortness of breath and palpitations,” said Bolsonaro.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the newspaper O GlobeJair Bolsonaro’s personal doctor Antonio Luiz Macedo said the Brazilian president called him in tears and told him he was “dying” last Monday when he was hospitalized again for an intestinal obstruction. The head of state was discharged yesterday from the Vila Nova Star hospital in Sao Paulo without having to undergo surgery. However, according to the doctor, the case “was dangerous”. “He called me crying with pain. He told me: “I’m dying, Macedo. Things are bad ”», said the surgeon. “The pain is terrifying. It is as if someone were hitting hard with a hammer in the belly, ”Bolsonaro added in his phone call. When he was a candidate for the presidency of the Republic he was stabbed in the stomach (on 6 September 2018 in Juiz de Fora, in the state of Minas Gerais), during the electoral campaign. Since then, she has undergone six surgeries. “His situation is always dangerous. When we inserted the tube, a liter of gastric juice came out of his stomach. If he had vomited, the liquid would have entered his lungs and he would have died, ”Macedo explained.