Senate committee clears vaccination bill amid right-wing friction

Brazilian children lining up for Covid vaccination in a school in 2021. Photo: ImagensstockBR/Shutterstock

The Senate’s Education Committee on Tuesday approved by a 12-5 vote a watered-down bill mandating a vaccination program in public schools, after lawmakers allied with the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration caved to the moral panic of the anti-vax far-right close to former President Jair Bolsonaro.

The bill will proceed to a floor vote.

The House’s main committee approved the bill in August, sending it directly to the Senate without a floor vote. The bill was written in early 2019, before the Covid pandemic, by Congressman Domingos Sávio, a staunch Bolsonaro ally. Under his proposal, public schools will be required to host health workers to vaccinate students. Normally, parents take their children to health centers to get them vaccinated.

Mr. Sávio wrote at the time that he was concerned about declining vaccination coverage. For example, government data shows that 2015 was the last year that Brazil met its goal of 95 percent polio vaccination coverage. Coverage for most childhood vaccines increased in 2023, the first year of the current Lula administration, but still fell short of targets.

The right-wing radically shifted its discourse after Jair Bolsonaro adopted an anti-vax stance, using his presidency to spread lies and conspiracy theories about Covid vaccines in particular. For example, Mr. Bolsonaro falsely claimed — on several occasions — that the Covid vaccines were “experimental,” even after they had been approved by health authorities such as Anvisa, Brazil’s federal health regulator. He also falsely claimed that the vaccines were linked to the development of Aids.

Mr. Bolsonaro also used his power in government to delay and obstruct Covid vaccinations. He suspended a purchase of Sinovac’s CoronaVac in October 2020, and the government did not sign a contract until three months later.

In September 2021, the Health Ministry recommended suspending the vaccination of teenagers without pre-existing conditions, with no scientific evidence to support the decision. Months later, the ministry organized an unprecedented public consultation to solicit opinions on vaccinating children, which is required by law in Brazil. A public hearing was also held, providing a platform for anti-vaccine advocates.

Senator Marcelo Castro, a Lula ally and the bill’s latest rapporteur in the Senate, told far-right Senator Marcos Rogério at a public hearing on Tuesday that the bill “makes it clear” that it does not mandate vaccination for children. He removed a provision that would require public schools to inform parents and health authorities about children who have not been vaccinated.

The bill does not require children to be vaccinated in order to enroll in school, although such a measure would be possible under a 1990 law that defines childhood vaccination as mandatory.

In September, São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas vetoed a bill to create a similar HPV vaccination program in schools for children and adolescents aged 9 to 14.

Other right-wing governors, such as Romeu Zema in Minas Gerais and Jorginho Mello in Santa Catarina, have also taken stronger anti-vax stances this year.