Mônica Bergamo: Blockade of highways puts production of more than 1 million doses of flu vaccine at risk

The blocking of roads by Bolsonaristas protesting against the victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in the elections could cause damage to the production of 1.5 million doses of influenza vaccine by the Butantan Institute, in São Paulo.

A load of 520,000 eggs used for the production of vaccines against the H3N2 virus, which causes the flu, is held up amid the stoppage of truck drivers in the city of Jundiaí, in the interior of São Paulo.

If the delivery is not completed by the end of the morning of this Tuesday (1st), says the institute, the entire production could be impacted.

The Butantan Institute provides the Ministry of Health with 80 million doses of influenza vaccine annually, which are distributed throughout the country.

Until Monday night (31), there were more than 300 roadblocks in 25 states and the Federal District. Protesters call for a coup.

In Greater São Paulo, there are roadblocks on the Anhanguera, Bandeirantes, Castello Branco and Raposo Tavares highways.

The Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Alexandre de Moraes decided this Tuesday that the military police can act in the clearance of blocked highways “regardless of where they occur”, including on federal highways.

“The military police of the states have full constitutional and legal attributions to act in the face of these illicit acts, regardless of where they occur, whether in public spaces and federal, state or municipal highways”, says the minister in the decision.

The PMs, he says, must adopt “the necessary and sufficient measures, at the discretion of the responsible authorities of the State Executive Powers, for the immediate clearing of all public roads that, illicitly, are with their traffic interrupted.”

The governors of the states and of the Federal District were summoned, in addition to the commanders-general of the PMs and attorneys-general of Justice of the state Public Ministry.

In the second, Moraes had already determined that the government should immediately adopt “all necessary and sufficient measures” to clear the highways occupied by Bolsonaristas in protest of the election results.

As the column showed, the omission of the Federal Highway Police (PRF), which was not acting to unblock the roads, reinforces the certainty that President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) is stimulating the protests and buying time, with his silence, to see if they swell.

_{with BIANKA VIEIRA, KARINA MATIAS and MANOELLA SMITH}