Brazil: Supreme Court asks to analyze if Bolsonaro is investigated for sabotaging child vaccination

The Supreme Court of Brazil asked the Prosecutor’s Office to analyze whether the possibility of opening an investigation of the president proceeds Jair Bolsonaro based on a complaint by opposition leaders accusing him of prevarication for allegedly sabotaging the COVID-19 vaccination of children.

The request to the Prosecutor’s Office was sent this Monday by Judge Rosa Weber, one of the eleven members of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) of Brazil, and supposes a conventional procedure every time the highest court receives complaints against the head of state, they reported. court spokesmen.

Based on the analysis presented by the Attorney General’s Office (Prosecutor’s Office) on the matter, Weber will determine whether or not to order the start of an investigation to verify whether Bolsonaro committed the crime of prevarication for allegedly delaying the COVID vaccination process. -19 of minors between 5 and 11 years old.

According to the complaint filed by the socialist deputy Tabata Amaral, the opposition senator Alessandro Vieira and the Secretary of Education of Rio de Janeiro, Renan Ferreirinha, both Bolsonaro and his Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, tried to sabotage the children’s vaccination campaign.

The complainants allege that the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa, regulator) authorized in December the use of the vaccine from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer to immunize against COVID-19 the nearly 20.5 million Brazilians between 5 and 11 years old. .

They add that, despite the decision of the technical and regulatory body, which considered the vaccination of children effective and safe, the head of state and his minister questioned the authorization and tried to delay the immunization campaign.

Bolsonaro, leader of the Brazilian far-right denier and one of the most skeptical rulers about the seriousness of the pandemic, even requested the disclosure of the names of the directors of Anvisa who had authorized the vaccination so that they could be publicly censored, which even generated death threats against officials.

The president, who has said that he will be the last Brazilian to be vaccinated, also questioned the safety of vaccinating children; He stated that he had no news of minors killed by COVID-19 in Brazil, despite the more than 300 deaths, and said that he will not authorize his 11-year-old daughter to be immunized.

The Health Minister, for his part, decided to call a public consultation and a public hearing to analyze Anvisa’s decision in an attempt to question the regulator.

After failed attempts to stop the process, the Ministry of Health finally included children between the ages of 5 and 11 in the National Vaccination Program against COVID-19 and announced the distribution of immunizers to start the campaign.

The Brazilian Penal Code typifies the crime of prevarication when an official “improperly delays or fails to carry out an ex officio act; or when he practices it against the express provision of the law, to satisfy personal interest or sentiment.”

Bolsonaro faces at least five criminal investigations in the Supreme Court, ranging from possible illegal interference in the Federal Police to an alleged prevarication in a case of corruption in the purchase of coronavirus vaccines or the spread of false news on the Internet.

The head of state also faces a process in the Superior Electoral Court for his attacks against the electronic voting system.