Brazilian government blocks schools from requiring COVID-19 vaccinations

The government of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro issued a decree on Thursday prohibiting public schools from imposing vaccine mandates on their students.

"The requirement of proof of immunization as an indirect means of introducing compulsory vaccination may only be established by law," wrote Minister of Education Milton Ribeiro in the government’s Official Gazette.

The text further explains that because compulsory immunization has not yet been made law, "it is not possible for federal educational institutions to establish the requirement of vaccination against COVID-19 as a condition for the return to face-to-face educational activities.”

The next school year will begin at the end of January and classes are expected to be held in-person for the first time since March 2020 when the pandemic first reached Brazil.

Earlier this month, the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) approved the use of Pfizer’s pediatric vaccine and recommended that children between the ages of five and 11 be vaccinated.

Anvisa, however, encountered stiff resistance from Bolsonaro, one of the world’s most outspoken vaccine critics.

Although the government has not yet decided whether it will accept Anvisa's recommendation on pediatric vaccination practices, it opened a "public consultation,” so that Brazilians can opine on the matter.

Brazil, home to one of the highest COVID-19 death rates in the world, now enjoys one of the world’s highest vaccination rates, and major cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have seen more than 99% of the adult population receive at least one dose of the vaccine, Reuters reports.

So far, the South American country has administered more than 315 million doses, with 65.7% of the population fully vaccinated, according to PAHO data through Dec. 23.