Despite US Obstruction, Brazil Finally Buys Sputnik V Coronavirus Vaccine
— Life-Saving Medical Vaccines vs. US Military Geopolitical Considerations
Jamarl Thomas, political analyst and host of The Progressive Soapbox, asked: “Why did the US Health Department adopt a policy to push countries that were in dire need of medical help and vaccines to avoid procuring that medical help and vaccines?” America’s media is mum on the subject! Thomas, rightfully, concluded: “Your Brazilian life matters less than our [the US] foreign policy objectives.”
Were this a Sci-Fi movie and a group of people in the film were in danger of being eaten by the monster, often such movies depict a scene whereby there’s always an asshole who acts in such a way as to obstruct or endanger the whole group. In these kind of flicks, it becomes that asshole who invariably gets eaten by the monster!
Were it a Twi-Light Zone episode, it’d be entitled: Betrayal!
Morally, how are America’s president Donald Trump or Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro any different than the Sci-Fi asshole described above? Brazil desperately needed a Covid-fighting vaccine and was offered this on multiple occasions. America worked its influence to prevent this needy nation from getting the help it desperately needed.
Presently the nation with the second greatest number of Covid deaths, Brazil trails only the US. The South American nation went from 15,000 deaths to 280,000 deaths in a span of 10 months. It is projected it will reach a death toll as high as 600,000.
Brazil twice was offered a vaccine from China in mid-summer 2020, but its Health Ministry never responded to two letters offering assistance. A third letter, in October, was finally hand-delivered to the health minister, General Eduardo Pazuello. Two weeks later his Ministry of Health approved use of the vaccine, agreeing to buy 46 million doses. However, President Bolsonaro interceded and stopped the deal.
The question is begging: Why were seriously-needed Covid vaccines being blocked from people who need them?
Page 48 of the 2020 US Health Report, released on January 17, 2021, provides that answer. Under the heading Strengthening Health Cooperation in the US Humanitarian Leadership, is the following sub-title: Combating Maligned Influences in America. It states as follows:
“OGA used diplomatic relations in the Americas region to mitigate efforts by states, including Cuba, Venezuela, and Russia, who are working to increase their influence in the region to the detriment of US safety and security. OGA coordinated with other U.S. government agencies to strengthen diplomatic ties and offer technical and humanitarian assistance to dissuade countries in the region from accepting aid from these illintentioned states. Examples include using OGA’s Health Attaché office to persuade Brazil to reject the Russian COVID-19 vaccine, and offering CDC technical assistance in lieu of Panama accepting an offer of Cuban doctors.”
The US government also pressured Brazil not to buy Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine which has not only been proven effective and accepted by the World Health Organization, but it also doesn’t require intensive refrigeration like most other vaccines. This would be ideal for a nation like Brazil.
The efficacy of the Sputnik V vaccine?
Both Trump and Bolsonaro played profiteering politics with the deadly Coronavirus. Both championed themselves with their refusal to wear a safety mask at public events, both contracted the disease and both had numerous presidential aides who also contracted the virus. Both presidents have widely been accused of corruption.
Forgive my inelegance, but given so many have died as a consequence to both their action and inaction, Trump and Bolsonaro are each deserving of the teeth from the mouth of the Sci-Fi monster!
Finally, as a sidebar to readers, please understand propaganda in the US corporate-controlled and monopolized media is extensive. Forget not only five corporate conglomerates control 90% of all media consumed in the US, and each has a media plant in the White House, State Department, Pentagon and CIA!
An extensive study of historical academic research would show a similar confrontation existed between the US and Russia with respect to development of a vaccine to fight against Ebola. Like today, Russia’s medical contribution to Ebola was then downgraded and barely reported by Western media. Moreover, most Americans are clueless that it was Russian and American medical scientists who worked together to defeat polio!
I guess medical science can not compete with profiteering and military geopolitical considerations. After all, we still have a Drug War! Toward this end, sadly, today’s media practices a near-art form of lies, omissions, distortions and perversions of truth!
Just yesterday, a new National Intelligence Council Community Assessment — like the one that helped spawn Russiagate — report came out accusing Russia of helping Trump with his effort to defeat Joe Biden. Really now? Was this why Trump’s administration worked so diligently to prevent Russia’s Covid-fighting vaccine from being used in worldwide markets?
Astonishingly, America’s media still has you thinking Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are riding, bare-chested, on the same horse. I’m sick of it, aren’t you? Unfortunately, the newly-prez branded Biden is nothing but another well-trained oligarch holding reigns to a stagecoach named Oligarchy. The world — every bit as much as it needs virus protection — desperately needs more Bernie Sanders-types!
