Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Monday (Feb. 9) that there will be no shortage of money for health research during his administration. While advocating multilateralism at an event held by the Butantan Institute, Lula also spoke about the partnership with China for vaccine production in Brazil and said he is not choosing the Asian country over the US.

“We are choosing what’s best for our country. If China agrees to partner with us in vaccine production and will produce the quantity we’re not yet able to produce, why not enter into an agreement with China?” he said.

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In São Paulo, the event marked the start of dengue vaccination for primary care health professionals across Brazil. The vaccine, which is produced entirely in Brazil, was developed by Butantan after more than 15 years of research funded by the federal government and the state government of São Paulo.

“As long as I am able to help, there will be no shortage of money for research, either at Butantan or any other research institute in this country,” he noted.
 

The goal is to protect 1.2 million workers on the front lines of Brazil’s national health care system, the SUS, against dengue fever. The expansion of vaccination to other groups, aged 15 to 59, starting with the oldest, is planned for the second half of this year as Butantan expands its production capacity.

Brazil’s Ministry of Health has been purchasing all available supplies, and it is expected that, based on a strategic partnership between Brazil and China, with the transfer of technology to WuXi Vaccines, production could increase 30-fold.

President Lula also spoke about fake news that attempts to discredit the importance of vaccination and stated that it is necessary to convince society to return to vaccination, “as it was in the past.”

“We have an obligation not to get discouraged, to campaign, to talk in schools, to have teachers talk, pastors and priests talk [in churches], politicians talk, until we convince people that getting vaccinated means avoiding the possibility that, at some point, nature [viruses and bacteria] could disrupt a person’s life,” he argued.