‘There hasn’t been a child’s death to justify an emergency’, says Bolsonaro

President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) repeated his Health minister, Marcelo Queiroga, and said this Friday (24) morning that “there is no child death” to justify an emergency decision on the Covid-19 vaccine for children .

“There has been no death of a child that justifies an emergency,” he told reporters at Palácio da Alvorada.

“Is a child between 5 and 11 years old dying that justifies an emergency? It is the father who decides, in the first place,” he said.

Then he said he doesn’t want to determine anything about the topic. “If there’s a health problem, they’ll blame me. When I want to give an opinion, I’m interfering. My situation is complicated.”

The president even questioned the vaccination, once again, and complained that he could no longer debate the issue: “It became a crime.”

The Health Minister said, on Thursday (23), that the deaths of children by Covid-19 are at a low level, in order to justify the decision of the Ministry to define child immunization only on January 5th.

According to data from the Epidemiological Surveillance System for Influenza (SIVEP-Influenza), since the beginning of the pandemic until December 6 of this year, 301 deaths of children between 5 and 11 years old due to Covid-19 were registered in the country.

In 2020, 2,978 children had severe acute respiratory syndrome due to the coronavirus—156 of them died. This year, there were 3,185 cases in this age group, with 145 deaths.

The ministry received a favorable recommendation from Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) last week for the application of the Pfizer vaccine in children aged 5 to 11 years.

Bolsonaro also said this Friday (24) that he participated in the public consultation as a “citizen”, and defended the proposal to require a medical prescription to vaccinate children aged 5 to 11 years.

“I am not a doctor, but I have an 11-year-old daughter. But I had already answered, I have a doctor by my side here [governador de Goiás, Ronaldo Caiado]. I think that any procedure has to go through the hands of the doctor, ok?”, said the president.

The directive announced by Queiroga the day before responds precisely to a request made by the president. Over the weekend, Bolsonaro had said he had asked the minister to demand a prescription and parents’ disclaimer to implement the measure.

Among the 19 questions in the public consultation, there is a question about schools, which questions the obligation to present a vaccination card. Immunization is not mandatory in the country, but it is common for schools to cover students’ updated cards.

In this regard, Bolsonaro said on Friday that “you cannot enroll just vaccinated governor or mayor”.