Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro already faced a challenging re-election fight, and now political observers are wondering if he'll even be in office still by the 2022 election. The threat to his presidency stems from a congressional investigation into Brazil's haphazard COVID-19 pandemic response. Instead of finding just some mix of incompetence, vaccine skepticism, and sloppiness, the congressional investigation stumbled upon some explosive investigations about kickbacks, financial irregularities, and other corruption allegations that may reach all the way to the president, The Washington Post reports.
The presidency-threatening scandal involves the Brazilian government's decision to hurriedly buy an unapproved COVID-19 vaccine from India's Bharat Biotech at more than 10 times the original quote price, after holding up and haggling over several earlier vaccine offers. Health ministry officials testified that Bolsonaro was informed of the suspected corruption involving the purchase of India's Covaxin vaccine, but he failed to act or notify the appropriate authorities, which could be a crime in Brazil.
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