Sao Paulo (EFE).- Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro apologized after erroneously stating that messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines against covid-19 contain “graphene”, a substance that, according to him, accumulates in “the testicles and the ovaries.
The far-right leader made that statement on Saturday at an event of the Liberal Party (PL), his political formation, together with his former Minister of Science and Technology and current senator Marcos Pontes, in the interior of the state of Sao Paulo.
The ex-president then maintained that he read in the prospectus of the vaccines developed with mRNA technology that they contain “graphene” particles, a statement that he today attributed to a “mistake” on his part.
Once again I regret what I said and I apologize.
“As it is in the public domain, I am excited about the employment potential of graphene oxide and I inadvertently related the substance to the vaccine, a fact denied in August 2021. Once again I regret what I said and I apologize,” he indicated on his social networks. .
Bolsonaro ruled between 2019 and 2022 and during the coronavirus pandemic he adopted a denialist stance, minimizing the severity of the virus, censoring the imposition of isolation measures, rejecting the use of masks and planting unfounded suspicions about the efficacy of vaccines.
fake news
The former head of state came to link the anticovid vaccines to AIDS in a live broadcast on his social networks, which led to the opening of an investigation in the Supreme Court related to the spread of false news.
Brazil is one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus and to date has accumulated 703,399 deaths and close to 40 million cases, according to official data.
Bolsonaro’s apologies come on the eve of the start of a trial in the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) for abuse of political power through the dissemination of false news about the elections, which could ultimately disqualify him politically.