Brazil authorities raid former President’s home over vaccine

Brazil’s federal police Wednesday raided the home of former President Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia over accusations that he falsified his vaccinations status to gain entry to the United States.

Bolsonaro, who served as Brazil’s Right-leaning president throughout the pandemic, remained a vocal skeptic of the COVID-19 vaccine and vowed not to take the shots or mandate them. But officials within the current Lula administration say that according to federal records, Bolsonaro has been vaccinated. Authorities claim that Bolosonaro must have faked his own vaccination in order to enter the United States, where he currently lives. 

Federal law enforcement therefore raided the former president’s home last week, seizing both his and his wife’s cell phones. Two of Bolsanaro’s former aides have also been arrested as part of the sudden investigation, and 16 more search and seizure warrants have been issued for other Bolsonaro supporters.

Bolsonaro reportedly confirmed in a statement following the raid that he has not received the COVID-19 vaccine and did not list himself as vaccinated in federal records.

Bolsonaro is the chief political opponent of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who reportedly beat Bolsonaro by a hair in October in a hotly contested election. Millions of Bolsonaro supporters have denied Lula’s legitimacy, citing several voting irregularities and the fact that Lula was previously imprisoned for corruption.

Lula reversed several Bolsonaro policies upon assuming office, such as rescinding the ban on Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, whom Lula has warmly embraced as an ally.

Another Bolsonaro policy undone by Lula is freedom of choice regarding health. Where Bolsonaro refused to implement vaccine mandates, Lula has vowed to track down influential voices who questioned the vaccine and make them apologize. Otherwise, they will be held “responsible for people's deaths”.

Last month, Lula’s Health Ministry demanded that the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) take action against health experts who do not embrace all vaccines.

In a letter to the CFM, the Health Ministry took aim at physicians who question vaccines, which it called “denialism”. The ministry claimed that misinformation has been propagated by professionals in all areas of health and that “hesitation in vaccines has brought harm to the population”.

To support its claim, the ministry cited the World Health Organization (WHO), which determined vaccine hesitancy to be one of the ten biggest threats to global health. 

In February, Lula kicked off the National Movement for Vaccination with an appearance in Brasília during which he was administered the fifth COVID-19 injection in a public ceremony.

“For God’s sake, don’t be irresponsible,” Lula told the crowd. “If there is a vaccine available, go get vaccinated, because the vaccine is the only guarantee you have of not dying due to lack of responsibility. The vaccine is a guarantee of life. That’s why I took my fifth vaccine today. And if there is a sixth, I will take the sixth. If there is a seventh, I will take the seventh.”

A month prior, Lula said he would take as many as 50 COVID injections because “I like my life”. He made the remarks during a speech notifying welfare recipients that they will now only qualify for financial aid if their children are vaccinated.

Brazil’s Bolsa Familia program provides social welfare to Brazilian families who have children up to 17 years old and live in poverty or extreme poverty. In his speech during the inauguration of the ophthalmology and diagnostic units of the Super Carioca Health Center in Benfica, Rio de Janeiro, Lula said he will be attaching conditions to the program.

“The Bolsa Família is coming back, and it is coming back with something important; it is coming back with conditions. The children have to be in school. If they are not in school, the mother loses the benefit,” said the president and convicted felon. “The children have to be vaccinated. Suppose they don’t have a vaccination certificate. In that case, the mother will lose the benefit.”

It is unclear if the COVID-19 vaccine will be included among the mandatory vaccines, but Lula went on to suggest that mothers who don’t vaccinate their children don’t really love them.

“For God’s sake, we can’t be ignorant to the point of thinking it’s not worth getting vaccinated,” Lula said, according to the Gateway Pundit. “I keep asking myself what kind of love does this mother have for her children, that she doesn’t take care of them at the most important moment when they can be vaccinated and can avoid a more delicate disease in their lives,” he added.

Aside from Lula making Bolsa Familia conditional on vaccinations and school attendance, mothers will be required to receive prenatal care to qualify. Lula said they must take all medications prescribed during prenatal care so the child can turn out “robust, strong and beautiful like me".