On Monday, the Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro changed his usual tone of criticism against China. On Twitter, he thanked the Chinese government’s decision to release a batch of inputs of CoronaVac, the Chinese Sinovac vaccine against SARS-Cov -2, for Brazil.

With the arrival of 5,400 liters of IPA (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient), the Butantan Institute – Sinovac’s local partner and also an institute linked to the Sao Paulo State government – estimates that it will produce 8.5 million doses of CoronaVac.

Also, on Monday, Economy Minister Paulo Guedes defended the “mass vaccination” against COVID-19 as something crucial for the country’s economic recovery – a message that must also have reached the Chinese government.

CoronaVac’s emergency use was approved by Brazil’s health regulator on January 17, alongside the Oxford/AstraZeneca immunizer. On the same day, Sao Paulo’s governor João Doria, inoculated the first person with CoronaVac – increasing the rivalry with Bolsonaro – the president often referred to the immunizer as “the Chinese vaccine for Doria”.