Brasilia, Cuba: President Jair Bolsanaro acted again against the life and health of the people of Brazil, by discarding the necessary information that is required today for import requests for the Russian vaccine against Covid-19 Sputnik V, Prensa Latina.
This was stated by the deputy and former Minister of Health Alexandre Padilha in an extended public hearing in the lower house that discussed the impasses with the acquisition of this immunizer by the governors of the Northeast and the federal government.
Such debate emerged a day after the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) postponed the import orders for Sputnik V due to the alleged lack of documentation certifying its efficacy and safety.
In this regard, Padilha commented that the technicians of the regulatory body made a decision based solely on the information provided to them.
However, he wondered: ‘Why didn’t Anvisa have all the information about vaccines? Why didn’t Bolsonaro facilitate access to the information? ‘
For the former minister, the president ‘is responsible for it. It is the obligation of the federal government to facilitate all types of international cooperation for the population’s access to the vaccine. And this did not happen at any time, ‘he criticized.
He recalled that since last year Sputnik was offered to the Brazilian government. “And Bolsonaro’s position on this issue was absurd: he set aside any possibility of bilateral communication with Russia.”
What should have been done? An agreement, as we did in the H1N1 pandemic, in which the two institutions involved accompanied, together, all the research and application of the vaccines. Bolsonaro simply washed his hands, he denounced.
He insisted that the primary relationship is between countries. Bolsonaro must be, since the middle of last year, accompanying the entire Sputnik investigation process.
“He must be in direct contact with the President of Russia (Vladimir Putin) and his Minister of Health, agreeing on the best ways to acquire all the information necessary for the approval of the vaccine in Brazilian territory,” Padilha emphasized.
At the hearing, the governor of the state of Piauí (northeast) and president of the Northeast Consortium, Wellington Dias, revealed that he held a meeting with the Russian authorities who promised to complement the data required by the regulatory agency.
Regarding this situation, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) described Anvisa’s decision as policy.
The RDIF note adds that this assumption is confirmed by ‘the data of the 2020 United States Department of Health and Human Services report, which openly mentions the attempts of that office to pressure the Brazilian authorities and force them to refuse to buy the Russian vaccine ‘.