Good morning! Bolsonaro tries to rain on Doria’s parade amid talks of third vaccine shots. Big Center eyeing up even more influence in the government. Good news for Petrobras in Supreme Court battle. Justices compare the administration to the Nazis.
Vaccine wars, revisited
The Brazilian Health Ministry said Brazil should greenlight a study conducted by the University of Oxford to evaluate the need for a third booster shot for people vaccinated with CoronaVac — the immunizer developed by Chinese lab Sinovac and brought to Brazil by the São Paulo state government.
- CoronaVac accounted for the bulk of vaccines rolled out in the country until July, when the AstraZeneca vaccine overtook it as the most-used.
Why it matters. Bringing CoronaVac to the country is the feat upon which São Paulo Governor João Doria hangs his entire presidential bid. By framing the third booster shot as a “reinforcement,” President Jair Bolsonaro hopes to weaken the importance of Mr. Doria’s achievement.
- Polling far behind center-left former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and seeing more than half of voters calling for his impeachment, Mr. Bolsonaro seeks to clear out any potential competitors right of center, hoping that the anti-Lula vote will be...