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Coronavirus: ‘transparency’ of China vaccine questioned by Brazil’s drug agency
- President Jair Bolsonaro has tried to discredit CoronaVac, perceiving it as a tool of his political rival and of the Chinese Communist Party
- Anvisa warns against the ‘influence of issues related to geopolitics’ in promoting vaccines
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The Brazilian health regulator, Anvisa, accused China on Monday of using criteria that “are not transparent” to win emergency approval of its coronavirus vaccine CoronaVac, which is in the final phase of trials in Brazil.
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“The Chinese criteria applied to grant the authorisation of emergency use in China are not transparent,” Anvisa said in a statement.
The regulator, which sent a group of technicians to inspect the Sinovac plant in Beijing in early December, also warned against the “influence of issues related to geopolitics” in promoting vaccines.
CoronaVac, produced by the Chinese private laboratory Sinovac in association with the Butantan Institute of Sao Paulo, has been the target of attempts to discredit it by Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who sees it as a tool of both the governor of the state of Sao Paulo, Joao Doria – considered as a potential rival in the next election – and of the Chinese Communist regime.
Bolsonaro even referred to it as “Joao Doria’s Chinese vaccine,” in an attempt to belittle it.
Doria announced on Monday that the Butantan Institute had changed its plans and that it would present Anvisa with a request for definitive authorisation, rather than for emergency use for CoronaVac in Brazil, where the pandemic has already claimed more than 181,000 lives and infected almost 7 million people.
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