Brazil President Bolsonaro criticises plans to vaccinate children aged 5-11 against COVID

Amid the surge of Omicron cases worldwide, the President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has criticised his nation's Health Regulatory Agency, Anvisa, for approving COVID-19 immunisation for children between five and eleven. Even though the COVID-19 vaccinations have been proven to be safe for children aged five and up by Brazil's health regulator as well as authorities throughout the globe, Bolsonaro said that vaccines might cause adverse effects in youngsters, but he provided no data to back up his claim, Australian Associated Press reported. 

Brazilian President, who has boasted about not being inoculated and has questioned the efficiency and safety of coronavirus vaccinations, stated in a radio interview that there had not been many child fatalities from COVID-19 to support immunisation of youngsters. He even said that his 11-year-old daughter Laura would not be inoculated. Talking about the vaccination of children, Bolsonaro said, “Are you going to vaccinate your child when the possibility of dying is almost zero? What is behind this? What are the interests of vaccine maniacs?", Australian Associated Press reported. 

Furthermore, the Ministry of Health stated on Wednesday that it had purchased nearly 20 million Pfizer-developed vaccines for children and that voluntary inoculation of youngsters aged five to eleven will start by the end of this month. After that, Bolsonaro reiterated in a later social media broadcast on Thursday that inoculation was not mandatory. "No town mayor or state governor can prevent a child from going to school for not being vaccinated," quoting the President, Australian Associated Press reported. 

In addition to this, Bolsonaro cautioned that Pfizer is not responsible for any negative effects the vaccination may cause in children and that parents should seek medical attention immediately if their kid has chest pains or shortness of breath. However, earlier on December 16, Anvisa authorised the Pfizer vaccine shots for children, which had sparked outrage from vaccine opponents and the president, who urged that youngsters only be inoculated with a medical recommendation. 

COVID tally in Brazil 

Meanwhile, by the beginning of December, nearly 300 children aged between five to eleven have lost their lives in Brazil due to COVID-19 disease, as per the National Council of State Health Secretaries. Further, the President's criticism came as the government recorded 35,826 new COVID-19 instances in the previous 24 hours, the maximum number of infections in a single day since September. As per Worldometers, over 22,395,322 individuals have been affected by the disease in Brazil since the outbreak, and more than 619,730 people have lost their lives. 

Image: AP