MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolsonaro's Covid-19 vax card proven to be fake

Bolsonaro has always claimed never to have taken a Covid-19 vaccine

Brazilian authorities have determined that former President Jair Bolsonaro produced false certificates attesting to his vaccination against Covid-19 to enter the United States, it was reported this week.

The Office of the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) found “inconsistencies” regarding the document's date and place of issuance, it was explained. However, the authors of the forgery have not been identified. The CGU, a Federal Government body in charge of protecting public assets, transparency, and combating corruption, said in a statement that “the conclusion was that it was a fraud against the state anti-COVID-19″ vaccination registration system.

The CGU also recommended closing the case ”for lack of minimum elements about the authorship of the facts“, after finding that many officials and health personnel had access to the vaccination computer system and could modify data.

According to local media, Bolsonaro was allegedly given his shot in Sao Paulo at a time when his itinerary would show that he could have not been there because he had left the city the day before. Bolsonaro's vaccination registration, dated July 2021 in São Paulo, was not done through the official system of the federal health agency. Nor was there any evidence of the involvement of any federal public servant in the fraud. It was also established that the vaccine Bolsonaro allegedly received was not available in the area at the time of the entry while the nurse listed on his vaccination card claimed she did not work at the facility mentioned in the certificate. In addition, no worker at that healthcare center recalled seeing Bolsonaro there.

The CGU's investigation also determined that the records of two other doses of vaccine allegedly given to Bolsonaro were removed, which would prove that they were also fake.

Bolsonaro has always claimed he had never taken a Covid-19 vaccine and questioned the convenience of these drugs as well as that of social distancing measures. He even linked the shots's possible side effects with the development of AIDS.

The former rightwing ruler is also under investigation in the United States alongside other family members and advisors who would have entered the country on false papers.

Among those arrested by the Federal Police in May 2023 for this case is Bolsonaro's former aide Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid Barbosa, whose connection to the scheme was confirmed by the CGU. Months later he was released after a plea bargain.

The former Brazilian president testified before the Federal Police in Brasília last May in this case. His house was raided as part of the investigation. In that statement, Bolsonaro, 68, denied the accusations and said the current authorities were trying to ”fabricate a case” against him.

Days before the end of his term, Bolsonaro traveled to Florida with his family to avoid participating in the handover ceremony with arch-rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to whom he had lost the runoff in October 2022. He stayed there for three months before returning to his country.