The creators of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine slammed Brazil’s refusal to import the vaccine on Tuesday, claiming it was politically motivated. Anvisa, the Brazilian health regulator, rejected requests from many states to obtain batches of Sputnik V on Monday, citing a lack of evidence to check the vaccine’s safety and efficacy.
The official Sputnik V Twitter account said, “Anvisa’s delays in approving Sputnik V are unfortunately of a political nature and have nothing to do with access to information or science.”
It cited a recent US government study claiming that the US attempted to convince Brazil not to use Sputnik. “The United States Department of Health, in its 2020 annual report several months ago, publicly stated that the United States health attaché‘persuaded’ Brazil to reject the Russian vaccine against COVID-19,” the account added.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have not yet approved the vaccine, so Anvisa’s experts have raised “uncertainties”. At least 60 countries have approved the Russian vaccine so far, including more than ten in Latin and Central America.
Argentina signed an agreement with Russia at the start of this month to become the first Latin American country to manufacture Sputnik V shots. Before commenting on the Brazilian decision, the Kremlin said Tuesday that it needed more details and that it was not in contact with Brazilian authorities on the matter.
However, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, told reporters that in general, “We are against the use of vaccines as a political tool.”
But the Biden administration is pushing its geopolitical agenda. The Biden administration has been hoping that the Brazilian President will commit to climate standards for the Amazon. This was one of Biden’s focus of US’s foreign policy as he had explicitly pointed out in a Presidential debate.
Ahead of getting elected as the US President, Biden had promised to re-join the Paris Agreement and mobilise wealthy nations to conserve Brazil’s rainforest as part of a larger initiative to fight climate change. Furthermore, he had said, “I would be gathering up and making sure we had the countries of the world coming up with $20 billion and say, ‘here’s $20 billion, stop — stop tearing down the forest. And if you don’t, then you’re going to have significant economic consequences’”.
The promise of a $20 billion fund and the threat of economic consequences left Jair Bolsonaro with little choice. Moreover, given the Democrat’s demonization of Russia since Biden has ascended to the oval office, it seems pretty clear that in pushing his own climate change agenda, Biden also pushed his anti-Russia rhetoric, which resulted in Brazil declining Russia’s sputnik vaccine.
Brazil is one of the worst affected countries by the pandemic. Such has been the dismantling of basic civic healthcare that a probe has been launched to investigate how things went as bad as they did. But in toeing Biden’s climate agenda, especially when it comes with a $20 billion pay-out, Bolsanaro has turned a blind eye towards the death of his citizens and is seeking to save the Amazon.
