Skip to content
Subscriber Only
Markets
Prognosis

Brazil Let 70 Million Shots Get Away and Sealed Its Covid Fate

  • Bolsonaro and ministers are under withering attack in congress
  • Pfizer says its efforts to sell Brazil vaccines got no reply
Jair Bolsonaro greets supporters during a protest in Brasilia on May 15.
Jair Bolsonaro greets supporters during a protest in Brasilia on May 15.

Photographer: Andressa Anholete/Getty Images

Last August, when Brazil had emerged as among the worst hit nations by Covid, Pfizer Inc. offered the health ministry to set aside as many as 70 million doses of the vaccine it was developing. It got no answer. So it made the offer again. And then a third time.

The next month, the company’s former Brazil head, Carlos Murillo, told congress, Pfizer’s global chief put the offer in writing to President Jair Bolsonaro with copies to the vice president, chief of staff, ministers of health and economy and ambassador to the U.S.