Bolsonaro threatens disclosing names of officials who approved Covid jabs for children

The Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has threatened to disclose identities of health officials who played a part in approving Covid vaccines for children.

Bolsonaro's threat has come after Brazil’s health regulator, Anvisa, revealed that the organisations’s five directors had recently received death threats over the fact that they had played a part in approval of vaccinations for children aged between five and eleven.

While Anvisa approved the Covid vaccine for kids, it is not yet decided if the kids will start getting vaccinated just yet or not. The matter has been passed to the health ministry for further consideration.

WATCH |

"Collective vaccination reduces transmission of SARS-CoV-2 for this age group, and as a result, reduces transmission from children and adolescents to adults and the elderly," said Meiruze Freitas, director of Brazilian health regulator Anvisa, announcing the decision.

Since Anvisa had granted approval for Pfizer shot for children on Thursday, some locals have been protesting vocally against it and have also reportedly sent death threats to officials.

Anvisa has reported the threats to the police and prosecutors.

However, Bolsonaro decided that the logical move was to reveal the names of all the officials who have helped in getting the approval for Pfizer vaccine for children. Bolsonaro believes that the names should be revealed so that the public "could come to its own judgements".

Bolsonaro has suffered immense backlash for his poor handling of the coronavirus pandemic in Brazil. The President earlier downplayed by pandemic by claiming that the COVID-19 was not a 'big deal'. He has also, several times, broken Covid restrictions imposed by health experts and has in some ways promoted vaccine hesitancy in Brazil.