Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has said that Brazil, where over 162,000 people have died from COVID-19 and almost six million have been infected, needs to stop being a “country of sissies”.
While expressing regret for the dead, he also stressed that “we will all die someday”.
Bolsonaro made the comments in a speech at an event at his official workplace, the Planalto Palace, in the capital, Brasilia, on 10th November.
Bolsonaro, his wife, and two of his sons had COVID-19 earlier this year. The Brazilian President dismissed it as a “little flu”.
His latest statement was made hours after his controversial comments on a “serious adverse incident” that was reported in the Brazilian trial of a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine, which resulted in the trial’s suspension.
The Brazilian president had earlier taken to social media to write: “Death, disability, abnormality. This is the vaccine that [Governor of Sao Paulo] Doria wanted to force all Paulistanos to take. The President said that the vaccine could never be mandatory. Another win for Jair Bolsonaro.”
This was despite the fact that the incident, a volunteer committing suicide, was not related to the vaccine.
At the later event, which was about the resumption of the tourism sector, Bolsonaro said: “Everything is about the pandemic now, it’s got to stop. I’m sorry for the dead, I’m sorry. We will all die someday, everyone here will die. There’s no use running away from it, running away from reality.
“We need to stop being a country of sissies. Look at that plateful for the press. A plateful for the vulture that’s back there. We need to face it with our chests out; fight it. What is this new generation like? My generation, Milton’s (Milton Ribeiro is Brazil’s conservative education minister), is different, 60 years old. The new generation is all ‘Toddynho (a chocolate drink), Nutella, Zap (WhatsApp)’. It’s a reality.”
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Story By: William McGee, Sub-Editor: James King, Agency: Newsflash
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