Wife of Brazil’s Bolsonaro vaccinated during trip to United Nations

Brazil’s first lady Michelle Bolsonaro received a COVID-19 vaccination while in New York as part of her husband’s presidential delegation to the United Nations General Assembly.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, 66, disclosed the immunization during a Facebook Live chat after returning to Brazil, The New York Times reported.

“So what happened with my wife, just now in the United States. She came to me to ask: ‘Should I take the vaccine or not?’” said Jair Bolsonaro. “I gave her my opinion. I’m not going to say what my opinion was. I’m going to say what she did. She took the vaccine.”

“She’s an adult, she’s 39, she knows what she’s doing and she got the vaccine,” he added.

Jair Bolsonaro’s office later released a statement clarifying that members of the delegation were required to get tested for COVID-19 before flying back to Brazil and Michelle Bolsonaro was asked during the test if she wanted to get immunized as well.

The Brazilian president has continually derided COVID-19 vaccines, baselessly claiming that they could cause a myriad of side effects.

Since attending the U.N. General Assembly, four members of his delegation have tested positive for COVID-19, including his son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who disclosed that he had received at least one dose of a vaccine.

Other members of the presidential delegation like health minister Marcelo Queiroga and finance leader Pedro Duarte Guimaraes have also stated that they were fully or partially vaccinated and contracted the virus.

The Times noted that news of Michelle Bolsonaro’s immunization was not received well by the Brazilian public, with many lambasting the lack of solidarity between the presidential couple and others seeing her decision to get vaccinated in the U.S. as an affront to Brazil’s health care system.

“I congratulate Mrs. Michelle, who, unlike her husband, was vaccinated,” Brazilian Sen. Omar Aziz told media, but added “someone should have told her that the vaccine applied in the United States is the same as in Brazil.”