Justice denies family members of man killed by Covid compensation for delay in vaccine

Justice denied compensation to the widow and three children of a man who died of Covid-19 in 2021. The family from Passo Fundo (interior of Rio Grande do Sul) claimed in the action that the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) would have responsibility for death for taking too long to buy vaccines against the disease.

The family asked for R$500,000 for material damages due to the loss of income caused by the death of the patriarch and another R$200,000 for moral damages. The TRF4 (Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region) denied the request.

In the sentence, the substitute federal judge Fabiano Henrique de Oliveira says that it is noticeable that the Covid-19 pandemic was not dealt with efficiently by the federal government. “A Serie
of resistances, contradictions and omissions were explicit and the result was catastrophic”, says the sentence.

For the magistrate, however, it is not possible to know whether death would have been avoided if the vaccine had been purchased earlier. He also states that even if the immunizers arrived on time, there would still be a plan to be followed, starting with the priority groups. The victim died at age 50 on March 28, 2021.

According to the Passo Fundo Municipal Vaccination Plan, the application of the first dose in people aged 51 and 50 began on June 14, 2021, almost three months after death.

For comparison, Oliveira cites vaccination in Chile, which on the date of the victim’s death, applied the first dose to people over 57 years of age.

The country was the first in South America both to approve a vaccine against Covid and to start the immunization campaign.

“In this context, there is no way of knowing whether, even with the vaccine being taken early, the deceased would have taken at least the first dose —in view of the vaccination schedule—, nor even that, having taken the first dose, under his/her conditions of health, death would not happen”, says the sentence.

The first person to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in Brazil was nurse Monica Calazans, 54, on January 17, 2021. She was immunized just minutes after Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) authorized the emergency use of Coronavac.

In São Paulo, the first dose for people aged 50 without comorbidities was only released on June 16, two days after Passo Fundo.