Understanding the complicated web of Brazil’s vaccine scandals

The Senate’s Covid hearings committee will take a two-week pause as Congress enters its mid-year recess. For the government, this interregnum will allow it to recover its strength and prepare for future attacks — especially when the administration’s House whip Ricardo Barros takes the stand in August. For the opposition, the pause will give senators valuable time to gather documents and prepare their cross-examination strategies — which have fallen flat on many occasions.

Meanwhile, for the public, a two-week break will give people the chance to reexamine the slew of evidence produced by the committee and attempt to understand the ins and outs of the convoluted vaccine scandals under the congressional microscope.

Senators are investigating two separate — yet connected — scandals, involving shady vaccine deals with the central government.

We mapped the main characters in the plot and how they connect to one another. Seems complicated? It is, but we will try to make it simpler.

The Davati case

Earlier in July, newspaper Folha de S.Paulo published an interview with Luiz Paulo Dominguetti Pereira, who claimed to be a representative of Davati Medical Supply, a Texas-based company specializing in selling personal protective equipment. 

Mr. Pereira claims to have offered 400 million AstraZeneca vaccines to the Brazilian government, but said that the Health...