BRASÍLIA, Sept 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Jair Bolsonaro’s lawmaker son said he had contracted the coronavirus — the third member of Brazil’s delegation to the UN General Assembly in New York to test positive.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, 37, said on Twitter he was feeling well and had “started to treat myself” without specifying what he was using.
He cited his infection as evidence in his campaign against the coronavirus vaccine passport recently introduced in some Brazilian cities.
“We know that the vaccines were developed faster than is usually the case. I received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and I got Covid. Does this mean the vaccine is useless? No. But I believe it is another argument against the health passport,” he argued.
Brazil’s health minister Marcelo Queiroga tested positive for Covid-19 Tuesday after attending the assembly and had to quarantine in a hotel in New York.
The third positive test was in a diplomat who arrived in New York a day ahead of Jair Bolsonaro.
President Bolsonaro, who has survived Covid-19, appeared without a mask on several occasions during his UN trip despite refusing to get the vaccine.
He caused a stir on social media after a photograph showed him taking few precautions as he ate a slice of pizza from a New York street vendor with other members of the Brazilian delegation.
Since his return, the president has been self-isolating at his official residence for having had contact with Queiroga, and is due to undergo a PCR test this weekend.
Under fire for his handling of the pandemic, which has claimed nearly 600,000 lives in Brazil, Bolsonaro opened the General Assembly with a speech in which he made several misleading or inaccurate statements, several related to the pandemic, according to AFP’s Factcheck team.
The president has minimized the virus as a “little flu,” fought lockdowns, questioned face masks and rejected various offers of vaccines for his population while pushing unproven drugs such as hydroxychloroquine. — NNN-AGENCIES
