RIO DE JANEIRO – Rumors and conspiracy theories were towed last week over the whereabouts of Zé Gotinha, the mascot of the country’s national vaccination program.
The outcry over the disguised Zé Gotinha began on Wednesday, after former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva drew attention to his recent absence.
“Where is our dear Zé Gotinha?” Da Silva said in a speech criticizing the treatment of the pandemic by President Jair Bolsonaro.
Zé Gotinha, whose name roughly translates as “Joe Droplet” and who resembles a Casper, the friendly ghost, was created in the 1980s to help the health ministry promote polio vaccination. and put the children at ease.
“Vaccine ads had been very heavy. They were associated with something terrible, tragic and potentially deadly, “Carla Domingues, former coordinator of the national vaccination program between 2011 and 2019, told The Associated Press.
Gotinha changed this and, due to its success, has made regular appearances to warn about the importance of preventing measles, tuberculosis, whooping cough, diphtheria and, more recently, COVID-19.
But the last time Gotinha was seen publicly at a ceremony in Brasilia was on December 16, with the launch of the national vaccination program. The character, much loved by children, rejected the attempt to shake hands with Bolsonaro in the name of social distancing.
Da Silva, a left-wing rival of Bolsonaro, presented his own theory about what happened to him in Gotinha: “Bolsonaro fired him because he thought he belonged to the Workers’ Party.”
One theory is that pet advertising services may not be needed at this time, as Brazil uses its limited doses to vaccinate seniors and people in priority groups, not yet children.
Many of the social networks speculate about the fate of Gotinha. One person talked about the drama of Gotinha unemployed. Another reinterpreted a typical poster of a missing child, with the image of the pet and the text “missing.”
“Encouraging the rapid recovery of Zé Gotinha. Only this hero can save us, ”said a Twitter user who speculated that the pet could recover from an illness.
Since the coronavirus vaccines began in Brazil, Bolsonaro has questioned its effectiveness. This skepticism has recently begun to recede, but he continues to claim that drugs such as hydroxychloroquine can help prevent hospitalization, although they have not shown any benefit in rigorous studies.
Due to low supply and slow deployment, almost 5% of Brazilians have received at least one vaccine so far, according to the national health secretary of Brazil’s national council. But 79% of Brazilians want to get vaccinated, according to a poll published on January 23 by data surveyor Datafolha. This is 6 percentage points compared to the previous survey in December.
On Friday, a drawing of Gotinha appeared on social media on social media by Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the president and federal parliamentarian. The pet was depicted with an assault rifle-shaped syringe. “Our weapon is the vaccine,” the legislator wrote.
Gotinha’s creator, artist Darlan Rosa, was dismayed.
“(Gotinha) was conceived as an educational character. There is nothing educational about a weapon, ”Rosa told the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. Carlos Latuff, another cartoonist, drew an image depicting Gotinha breaking a rifle in his knee.
Domingues, a former coordinator of the vaccination program, said Gotinha was an integral part of the vaccination efforts.
“It was thought that Gotinha made vaccination a holiday for children and it was a great success,” Domingues said. “He was one of the main people responsible for a change of perspective on vaccination.”