Indigenous leaders warn that missionaries are turning Amazonian peoples against vaccines

(This February 11 story corrects Purus to a tributary of the Amazon, not to Xingu)

BRAZIL (Reuters) – Medical teams working to immunize remote indigenous peoples in Brazil against the coronavirus have found fierce resistance in some communities where evangelical missionaries provoke fears of the vaccine, tribal leaders and advocates say.

On the São Francisco Reservation in the state of Amazonas, the villagers of Jamamadi sent medical workers with suitcases with bows and arrows this month when they visited them by helicopter, said Claudemir da Silva, leader of Apurina who it represents the indigenous communities of the Purus River, a tributary of the Amazon.

“It’s not happening in all villages, only in those that have missionaries or evangelical chapels where pastors convince people not to get the vaccine, which will turn into an alligator and other crazy ideas,” he said by phone.

This has added to the fear that COVID-19 may roar through more than 800,000 indigenous people in Brazil, community life and often precarious health care make them a priority of the national vaccination program.

Tribal leaders blame Brazilian far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and some of his staunch supporters of the evangelical community for causing skepticism about coronavirus vaccines, despite the number of national deaths being delayed in the United States .

“Religious fundamentalists and evangelical missionaries preach against the vaccine,” said Dinamam Tuxá, leader of the APIB, Brazil’s largest indigenous organization.

The association of Brazilian anthropologists on Tuesday denounced unspecified religious groups for spreading false conspiracy theories to “sabotage” indigenous vaccination.

Many pastors of Brazilian urban evangelical megaschurches urge followers to get vaccinated, but say missionaries in remote territories have not received the message.

“Unfortunately, some pastors who do not have wisdom spread misinformation to our indigenous brothers,” said Pastor Mario Jorge Conceição of the Assembly of the Traditional Church of God in Manaus, the state capital of the Amazon.

The indigenous health agency Sesai told Reuters in a statement that it was working to raise awareness of the importance of coronavirus vaccination.

Bolsonaro has downplayed the severity of the virus and has refused to take a vaccine himself. He pointed to a special mockery of the country’s most widely available feature, conducted by China’s Sinovac Biotech, which cites doubts about its “origins”.

At a December event, the president ridiculed vaccine maker Pfizer because he said the company had refused to take responsibility for the side effects in talks with his government.

“If he gets the vaccine and becomes an alligator, that’s his problem. If he becomes Superman or women shave, I have nothing to do with it, ”said Bolsonaro sarcastically.

Pfizer has said it proposed to the Brazilian government standard contractual guarantees that other countries would accept before using their vaccine.

Access to social media, even in remote corners of Brazil, has averted false rumors about coronavirus vaccines.

For example, 56-year-old tribal chief Fernando Katukina of the village of Nôke Kôi, near the Peruvian border, died on February 1 of heart failure related to diabetes and congestive heart failure. It quickly spread on social media and on the radio that the COVID-19 vaccine he received in January had caused his death.

The Butantan biomedical center, which is producing and distributing the Sinovac vaccine, revolted to convince the natives that this was not the case.

“Messages on social media saying Fernando Katukina died after taking a COVID-19 vaccine are fake news,” Butantan wrote in a tweet.

COVID-19 has killed at least 957 indigenous people, according to the APIB, of some 48,071 confirmed infections among half of Brazil’s 300 native ethnic groups. The figures could be much higher, because the Sesai health agency only monitors indigenous peoples living on reserves.