‘Guarantee of life’: Brazil’s Lula launches aggressive vaccine campaign

Brazil’s recently inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva last week launched an aggressive campaign to inject all Brazilians with the COVID-19 shots. 

Lula kicked off the “National Movement for Vaccination” with an appearance in Brasília alongside Health Minister Nísia Trindade during which he was administered the fifth COVID-19 injection in a public ceremony.

“I want to make an appeal to every mother, grandmother, grandfather, father, teenager and child that is here,” Lula told the crowd. “Let’s not believe in denialism. Let’s not believe in the nonsense that is said against the vaccine. You may not like or want to take the vaccine, but you have an obligation to love your son, your daughter, your mother, your father. And it is important for us to ensure that people take the vaccine to prevent greater tragedies in our lives.”

“For God’s sake, don’t be irresponsible,” he added. “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.”

Last month, 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.

He also suggested that mothers should vaccinate their children with as many vaccines as are available.

“If there are ten covid vaccines, 50 to take, I will take as many as necessary because I like my life. I think everyone has a duty to their children’s life, take them [to vaccinate] at the right age, that’s why they say the Bolsa Família is coming back,” Lula said.

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".

Frontline News reported earlier this month that legislation making its way through the Brazilian Congress proposes 2-8 years imprisonment and a fine for any Brazilian citizen who refuses to be vaccinated during a public health emergency. The same sentence would apply to someone who publicly criticizes the vaccine during a public health emergency with what is alleged to be “fake news”.

Parents or legal guardians who neglect to inject their children with government-mandated vaccines during a public health emergency will face 1-3 years’ imprisonment.