Expected 'bombshell' testimony fizzles at Brazil virus probe

Brazilian senators expecting explosive testimony from a former government official on President Jair Bolsonaro’s pandemic response are expressing anger at what they say are his evasive responses and, in some cases, lies

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazilian senators expecting explosive testimony from a former government official on President Jair Bolsonaro’s pandemic response expressed anger Wednesday at what they called his evasive responses and, in some cases, lies. Bolsonaro's former communications director, Fábio Wajngarten, testified for more than six hours as part of the Senate’s investigation into the administration's handling of the coronavirus outbreak. By late afternoon, several senators were calling for Wajngarten to be jailed. Critics of the far-right president had been keenly waiting for Wajngarten's appearance following an interview he gave to Brazilian magazine Veja last month in which he said the Health Ministry had shown “incompetence and inefficiency in the purchase of vaccines” for a nation that has seen more than 400,000 pandemic deaths. In his testimony Wednesday, Wajngarten said a letter sent in September by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer offering a contract for 70 million doses of coronavirus vaccine went unanswered for two months. But he didn’t allege any incompetence by individual officials, saying the problems stemmed from the bureaucracy's rigid rules for purchasing vaccines.