In a strange remark about COVID-19 vaccines, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said the vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech could turn people into “crocodiles” or “bearded ladies.” Earlier, when Brazil launched its mass inoculation, Bolsonaro said he would not be vaccinated. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world, the Brazilian president has been skeptical of the virus and has also described it as “little flu”.
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Brazilian Bolsonaro attacks COVID-19 vaccine
According to local media reports, Jair Bolsonaro said he will not need the COVID-19 vaccine because he has already tested positive for Coronavirus due to which his body has developed antibodies to the virus. This statement by the country’s president comes when the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been tested in Brazil. Meanwhile, Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is already in use in the United States and Britain.
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While launching the immunization campaign in Brazil on Wednesday, Bolsonaro said that while the coronavirus vaccine is free, it is not mandatory for everyone to be inoculated. On Thursday, Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that the vaccine was mandatory, but people cannot be “forced”. According to this latest ruling, the country’s government can fine people for not getting vaccinated and even ban them from certain public spaces, but it cannot force them to take it.
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Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, Brazil has so far recorded more than 7.1 million positive cases, of which nearly 1,85,000 people have succumbed to the disease.
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