BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s Vice President Hamilton Mourão said in a radio interview on Thursday that immunization against COVID-19 will necessarily require mass vaccination, and “everyone in the government knows that.”

He appeared to be clarifying the government’s position after President Jair Bolsonaro, who has consistently downplayed the severity of the coronavirus outbreak, said on Monday that nobody would be forced to take the vaccine once it is available.

(Reporting by Ricardo Brito; Editing by Chris Reese)

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