[News] Brazil applies the first vaccine against COVID-19 to a nurse

[#Steeven.™]

A 54-year-old nurse was the first Brazilian to receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, this Sunday in the city of Sao Paulo. This is Mônica Calazans, who provides her services at the Hospital las Clínicas in the capital of São Paulo.

Just minutes after the approval of its emergency use by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), the Latin American giant applied to Calazans, the first dose of the vaccine developed by the Chinese laboratory Sinovac and the Brazilian Institute Butantan, during a ceremony presided over by the governor of Sao Paulo, Joao Doria, main political rival of the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, who was not present at the ceremony.

In this regard Doria said: "This is a triumph of science, a triumph of life against deniers, against those who prefer the smell of death instead of the value and joy of life."

Bolsonaro, one of the most denialist leaders about the seriousness of the pandemic, has publicly questioned the effectiveness of the vaccines and came to veto at first the antigen promoted by the Butantan Institute, a body dependent on the São Paulo government.

Doria, who has already hinted at his political aspirations for the 2022 presidential elections, stressed that the application of the first vaccine "is a lesson" for the "authoritarians" who "despise life and have no compassion."

"Today's victory, the 5th day of the vaccine, the 5th day of life, belongs to those who give courage and work for life, quite the opposite of those who denied it in the last 11 months," said Doria.

In addition to the Butantan Institute vaccine, Anvisa also authorized today the emergency use of the antigen produced by the University of Oxford and the Anglo-Swedish laboratory AstraZeneca, the main commitment of the Bolsonaro Government but whose doses have not yet reached the country.

Brazil is one of the countries in the world most affected by the coronavirus pandemic and is now facing the second wave of the disease. With about 210,000 deaths and 8.4 million cases, it is the second country with the most deaths in the world due to COVID-19, after the United States and as the third with the most infections after the North American nation and India.