Brazil let 70m COVID-19 shots get away and sealed its fate
By Julia Leite, Andrew Rosati and Simone Iglesias / Bloomberg
In August last year, when Brazil had emerged as among the worst-hit nations by the COVID-19 pandemic, Pfizer Inc offered the Brazilian Ministry of Health to set aside as many as 70 million doses of the vaccine it was developing. It got no answer. So it made the offer again. And then a third time.
The next month, the company’s former Brazil head, Carlos Murillo, told the Brazilian Congress that Pfizer’s global chief put the offer in writing to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro with copies to the vice president, chief of staff, ministers of health and economy, and ambassador to the US.
Last August, when Brazil had emerged as among the worst hit nations by Covid, Pfizer Inc. offered the health ministry to set aside as many as 70 million doses of the vaccine it was developing. It got no answer. So it made the offer again. And then a third time.
Apr 12, 2021
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) April is shaping up to be Brazil’s darkest month yet in the pandemic, with hospitals struggling with a crush of patients, deaths on track for record highs and few signs of a reprieve from a troubled vaccination program in Latin America’s largest nation.
The Health Ministry has cut its outlook for vaccine supplies in April three times already, to half their initial level, and the country’s two biggest laboratories are facing supply constraints.
The delays also mean tens of thousands more deaths as the particularly contagious P.1 variant of COVID-19 sweeps Brazil. It has recorded about 350,000 of the 2.9 million virus deaths worldwide, behind only the U.S. toll of over 560,000.