Vaccine

Another barbaric inter-bourgeois dispute

Editorial, Masses 622, October 25, 2020

Bolsonaro disallowed his health minister, Pazuello, from maintaining the agreement with governors to finance the Chinese vaccine Coronavac. The tests carried out by the Butantã Institute and the Sinovac laboratory reached the last stage. All that remains is for the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) to approve it and to have the resources for the initial acquisition of 46 million doses. If it were not for the interests of multinationals and imperialist governments, this process could be completed and verified its scientific value in practice.

Bolsonaro, from the start of the race, took side in the vaccine of the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, England. Governor Doria, from São Paulo, opted for Sinovac. On one side and on the other, the Osvaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) and the Butantã Institute were aligned. The two institutions are able to produce any of the vaccines, among many that have been announced, and are in the testing phase. There is a general recognition that Brazil has the most advanced and comprehensive immunization program in the world. The Institute and the Foundation are two pillars of this civilizing achievement. Now, faced with the most complex and deadly virus, they are divided by the political interests of the government and bourgeois governors.

The population has witnessed the dirtiest and most hateful dispute between governments and laboratories, while the pandemic has persisted for seven months, and indicates that it may have new deadly outbreaks. This political conduct makes it even clearer how much economic power dictates the course of confronting the pandemic, at the expense of protecting the poor and the miserable. Defamatory campaigns about the scientific capacity and scientific seriousness of one or the other against laboratories and governments take place with impunity.

The World Health Organization (WHO) served as a sounding board for the disputes, without being able to organize and coordinate a real, unified and planned fight against the corona virus, according to the conditions imposed by the pandemic. The United States’ trade war against China determined the WHO’s bankruptcy. Their reflexes in Brazil were evident in the political disputes between Bolsonaro and Doria, which ended up dividing the authorities across the country.

Bolsonaro’s criminal fight against the Sinovac vaccine is yet another link in the war of alignment and international political positions. Trump’s trade war is present in Brazil, which carries millions of contaminated and thousands of dead. Just like that, Bolsonaro disqualified the Chinese vaccine. And it has counted on Anvisa, which unreasonably delays the authorization to import inputs for the production of Coronavac.

Bolsonaro, aligned with Donald Trump and Boris Jonhson, does not admit that the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is left behind. The illness of one of the test volunteers and the death of another delayed the advance of the English vaccine. Bolsonaro has the Provisional Measure 994, which is awaiting a vote in the National Congress, which privileges AstraZeneca and Fiocruz, simply by alignment with the United States.

The discussion among parliamentarians about how to provide resources for Sinovac-Butantã does not escape the odious political dispute. Doria poses as a good Samaritan, saying in a tearful voice that the vaccine has no homeland, that it is a good in the service of life, and that the vaccine to be produced in Butantã is from Brazil. Yes, the vaccine has a homeland, one that controls science in the form of capital. Commercial competition indicates that there is much to gain, or to lose. Brazil has an advanced vaccine industry, it has even come to dominate knowledge and technology, but it continues to depend on multinationals. This is what is observed in the race between powerful laboratories. The economic and political interests of the powers are clearly reflected in the country’s internal alignments.

We watched Bolsonaro and Doria clash over the bourgeois policy of social isolation. Economic power gave the final say in a few months, ending quarantine (remnants of education remain). Soon, they will find a way to cool the “vaccine war”. But a single day that delays the start of vaccination results in hundreds of deaths. Governors are considering creating a fund if Bolsonaro persists in maintaining his veto of the deal negotiated by Minister-General Pazuello.

This is the case, because the working class was bound by the union leaderships behind the bourgeois policy of social isolation. A clear position in favor of vaccination, as urgent as possible, should not be disconnected from the struggle for jobs, wages, rights and public health. The program of revolutionary expropriation of great capital is undoubtedly the consequent response of the proletariat. For that, it is necessary to break free from bourgeois domination, and to achieve political independence, through its collective organizations and its revolutionary party. It is with this objective that the POR under construction combats the bourgeois policy of social isolation, which now has its outcome in the “vaccine war”. Down with the “vaccine war”! That the centrals and unions call for demonstrations in defense of the health of the population, jobs and wages.