Brazil's Bolsonaro rejects plan to buy China's Sinovac vaccine; health minister tests positive

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro and a high-ranking health official said on Wednesday the federal government will not buy a COVID-19 vaccine from China's Sinovac, one day after the health minister said it would be included in the nation's immunisation program.

The apparent about-face, following anti-China social media commentary by some of Bolsonaro's supporters, thrust into the open a simmering debate over vaccine policy between the president and key governors, who have been exploring alternatives to the AstraZeneca vaccine the federal government has prioritised.

On Tuesday, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said in a meeting with state governors that the ministry would buy the Sinovac vaccine to include in the immunization program, along with AstraZeneca's vaccine developed with Oxford University. That inclusion would be contingent on approval by drug regulator Anvisa, he said.

The Health Ministry on Wednesday announced that Pazuello has tested positive for the virus, making him the latest Brazilian official, including Bolsonaro, to do so.

Sao Paulo state biomedical research center, the Butantan Institute, is testing the Sinovac vaccine, and Governor João Doria said he hopes to have regulatory approval by the end of the year to start vaccinating people in January.

But Bolsonaro said on Wednesday Pazuello had been misinterpreted during the meeting with Brazil's governors.

"For sure, we will not buy the Chinese vaccine," Bolsonaro said on social media, responding to a supporter who urged him not to buy the vaccine.

Later in the morning, health ministry official Elcio Franco said all vaccines would be forced to go through federal health approval channels, but that the government had no interest in "Chinese vaccines."

Doria, who announced on Tuesday that the federal government had agreed to buy 46 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine, took exception to that stance on Wednesday.

"The vaccine is what is going to save us, save us all," he told reporters.

"It's not ideology, it's not politics, it's not an election that will save us. It's the vaccine," added Doria, who is viewed as a potential opponent for Bolsonaro in 2022 presidential elections.

Brazil has been among the world's hardest hit nations by the pandemic, with more than 5 million infections and nearly 155,000 COVID-19 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.

The inclusion of the vaccine, called CoronaVac, in the national vaccination program of a nation of 230 million people would be a major success for Sinovac in what could be one of the world's first immunization efforts against the coronavirus.

The Brazilian government already has plans to purchase the AstraZeneca vaccine and produce it at its biomedical research centre FioCruz in Rio de Janeiro.

The Butantan Institute said on Monday that preliminary results from late-stage clinical trials of CoronaVac on 9,000 volunteers have proven that the two-dose Chinese vaccine is safe. Butantan director Dimas Covas said efficacy data will not be released until trials are completed.

Bolsonaro, a far-right leader who has drawn close to US President Donald Trump, has made disparaging remarks about China in the past, even though it is Brazil's largest trade partner.

He has minimized the gravity of the virus and criticised lockdowns that governors such as Doria have enforced.