Solicitor General argues that government should decide on vaccine

In a statement to the Supreme Court, Brazil’s Solicitor General’s Office defended that the federal government should only destine funds to a potential coronavirus vaccine after one has been “tested, proven effective, and greenlit by regulators in its country of origin and Brazil.”

The opinion was drafted as part of a lawsuit filed by opposition parties, seeking to force the government into helping states fund purchases of doses of the CoronaVac, a potential vaccine being developed by Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech, in partnership with the state of São Paulo. 

The government, however, argues it has autonomy over budget allocations.

President Jair Bolsonaro has dismissed the CoronaVac, as it comes from China — a country towards which the president is becoming increasingly aggressive — and is developed in São Paulo, where Governor João Doria is using his pandemic response as a platform for a 2022 presidential run.

But the Brazilian government’s declaration that funds will only be directed to a vaccine after studies have cleared all regulatory hurdles goes against the tide elsewhere in the world. Governments across the globe have sought to secure hundreds of millions of doses in advance, to get ahead in line and avoid facing a vaccine shortage.

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