SAO PAULO, BRASIL - On Saturday, I spotted a man, Mathues Gabriel, at Lula’s massive in Sao Paulo, carrying a sign with the photo of two women. They were his grandmother and his great-aunt, who both died of COVID, as a result of Flavio Bolsonaro blocking Pfizer from rolling out an early vaccination program in Brazil in favor of his buddies, who ran Covaxin.
In 2020, Pfizer approached Brazil and offered to supply vaccines at a discount. However, lobbyists from an obscure Indian company, Covaxin, approached Flavio Bolsonaro and asked for his help steering contracts to them instead of Pfizer. Investigative reporting by Revista Piaui showed that the company's lobbyists took Flavio to boat parties outside Brasilia, gifted him a rolex and offered him incentives to get his father to street the contract their way.
Ultimately, Covaxin did not deliver the vaccines, and tens of thousands died, including Gabriel’s grandmother and great-aunt.
“This delay occurred because of this resulted in Pfizer vaccines not being delivered to Brazil during that time. It meant that my grandmother and great-aunt—the two people in the photos—did not receive the vaccine in time both of them ended up passing away because of the shady dealings of these guys,” said Mathues.
“They should still be here today,” Mathues said, beginning to cry as he recalled the influence they had on his life.
He said he fought for Lula and against Flavio Bolsonaro out of memory.
”The strongest memory of the two is love,” said Mathues. “It’s the upbringing they gave me. It’s about looking at your neighbor as you would yourself and having that as the primary perspective for everything about managing to be a good person.”
Take two minutes to watch the interview with Mathues.
