Vaccine diplomacy is indeed a reality, and one that is severel | Strategic Culture Foundation

Vaccine diplomacy is indeed a reality, and one that is severely mismanaged to the benefit of countries that boast allegiances.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic remains a news item. Testimony given during a recent senate inquiry by former Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta exposes how Bolsonaro was aware of risking people’s lives to the point of death with his approach that ridiculed science. “I warned him systematically, with projections even,” Mandetta stated, as he explained that the fatality statistics prediction presented to Bolsonaro was close to the death toll in Brazil last year.

As the vaccine race started, Brazil engaged diplomatically with Russia, seeking to import the Sputnik V vaccine, which was authorised for use in Russia since August 2020.

The Sputnik V vaccine is being used in 62 countries across the world, mostly sought by developing countries as these have been politically disadvantaged due to a lower threshold of diplomatic engagement. It is still pending official recognition by the World Health Organisation and the European Medicines Agency, yet a study by the leading health journal The Lancet, states that the Sputnik V vaccine has an efficacy rate of 91.6% after taking the first dose, in terms of preventing Covid19.

However, Brazil’s national health service agency, Anvisa, rejected the use of Sputnik V, citing a “lack of consistent and reliable data”, questions over vaccine production as well as Russia’s refusal, according to Anvisa, to allow Brazilian regulators to visit the vaccine production sites. Russia rejected the claims and described the decision as political, citing U.S. interference back in 2020 which advised Brazil to reject the Russian vaccine. Read more by Ramona Wadi

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/05/07/without-access-sputnik-v-vaccine-brazil-turns-us-eu-for-surplus-doses/