Brazil’s Former President Now In Hot Water Over Vaccination Status

Published on March 26, 2024

Commentary Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was one of the few world leaders who railed against the mRNA vaccines. His administration declined several offers from pharmaceutical company Pfizer to sell Brazil tens of millions of such vaccines in 2020. And yet, Mr. Bolsonaro has now been formally accused of falsifying his COVID-19 vaccination status. The federal police indictment, released by the Supreme Court on March 19, alleges that the former president and 16 others inserted false information in a public health database to make it appear as though he, his 12-year-old daughter, and several others in his circle had received the vaccine. Police detective Fabio Alvarez Shor, who signed the indictment, argues in his report that Mr. Bolsonaro and his aides changed their vaccination status to “issue their respective [vaccination] certificates and use them to cheat health restrictions.”...