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A nurse vaccinates an indigenous woman in Maranhão state against corona
Photo: Ian Cheibub
Nurses ride boats down the Amazon, beat their way through the rainforest, and balance over tree trunks that serve as bridges. They work for SESAI, the health care for indigenous people in Brazil, and are on duty to bring the corona vaccination to the most remote villages in the country. With success: a total of around 78 percent of all indigenous people in Brazil are now vaccinated at least once. They are considered to be particularly endangered and are assigned to priority group one in Brazil - according to the recommendation of the World Health Organization.
But the campaign is not running everywhere: the nurse Fernanda Maria Costa Nascimento is responsible for indigenous people in the Gavião and Guajajára communities in the northern Brazilian Amazon state of Maranhão.
Since January she has been going back to the villages and talking for hours.
However, so far only around half of the indigenous peoples have been vaccinated with one dose.
SPIEGEL
: Ms. Costa Nascimento, why haven't all the indigenous people in your area been vaccinated against the coronavirus long ago?
Costa Nascimento:
We have had enough doses to vaccinate everyone for months.
But around half of them have so far refused the vaccines.
People don't trust the vaccination.
Particularly strange to them is the fact that they should suddenly be vaccinated with the highest priority in group one.
They know that their concerns and their protection have little priority in the government under President Jair Bolsonaro, on the contrary.
You saw that the President didn't appreciate you.
Hence, they believe that the vaccination is supposed to kill them.
SPIEGEL:
Around 20 percent of all Brazilians have now been vaccinated.
It should be clear to everyone by now that vaccination does not lead to death.
Costa Nascimento:
Unfortunately, it's not that simple.
Many indigenous people even felt confirmed after the first dose: They felt weak and in pain.
Now they refuse the second dose even more.
SPIEGEL:
What conspiracy theories and false reports about the corona vaccination are in circulation?
Costa Nascimento:
I hear a lot of stories and worries.
President Jair Bolsonaro is known to have contributed to vaccination skepticism himself and, among other things, declared that vaccination could turn a person into a crocodile.
Some of that has also stuck with the people.
That played a role especially at the beginning.
However, the view that the vaccine is a kind of liquid chip, a mark of the devil, is very widespread and dominant among the indigenous people.
SPIEGEL:
Where did this idea come from?
Costa Nascimento:
The story has its roots in the last book of the New Testament, which is about the Apocalypse.
There is talk of a mark of the devil, which marks the people who have fallen away from God and go to hell.
The indigenous people believe that the corona vaccination is that mark.
SPIEGEL:
Who is spreading these stories?
Costa Nascimento:
The indigenous people don't want to say much about this.
But it is clearly an evangelical narrative and is being promoted by the evangelical priests here.
These priests are very influential in the indigenous communities in Maranhão, this has been the case since the colonial days.
They want to manipulate and control people and have discovered the corona vaccination as a means.
The rumors and fake news are spread via social media and WhatsApp groups.
This is very detrimental to the vaccination campaign.
SPIEGEL:
As a nurse, it's your job to convince people to be vaccinated anyway.
How do you do it?
Costa Nascimento:
I've been working in the area for more than two years and with the same people. You respect me. First I called the leader of the church. He didn't want to get vaccinated. I had a long conversation with him, not as a representative of SESAI, but as a friend. I was able to persuade him. When I come to a village, I gather people in a circle and explain the pandemic, the danger of Covid-19 and the vaccination to them. But often that's not enough. Then I go from house to house and speak to each one individually. This can take up to 30 or 40 minutes per person and is not always successful.
SPIEGEL:
That sounds extremely complex.
With around 50 percent partially vaccinated, the indigenous peoples are likely to have achieved a certain level of herd immunity in their area as well.
Why are you continuing anyway?
Costa Nascimento:
50 percent simply vaccinated help a little.
But it also means that at least half of the people are still at risk.
The indigenous people live together in a very small space, often several generations live under one roof.
There are also other risk factors that have to do with your immune system or diet.
Throughout history, indigenous peoples have been victims of white-borne diseases that killed tens of thousands.
These people are particularly vulnerable and I won't stop until I have 100 percent vaccinated them.
SPIEGEL:
Is a vaccination rate of 100 percent even realistic?
Costa Nascimento
: why not?
With the flu vaccination, I achieve a vaccination rate of almost 100 percent every year.
Other vaccinations and our health services in general are also well received.
But that too was a process.
I think it will be a long time before confidence in the corona vaccination is restored after all the propaganda.
That worries me.
SPIEGEL:
Brazil is one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic.
According to official figures, 450,000 people have now died as a result of a Covid infection, and the number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher.
At the beginning of the pandemic, researchers feared that a terrible catastrophe could occur among the indigenous population - but that has largely failed to materialize.
Costa Nascimento
: At the beginning of the pandemic there were many infected people here.
The number of infections and deaths among the indigenous peoples are overall above average.
However, the indigenous people behaved very intelligently from the start.
They have withdrawn and isolated in their villages.
They have avoided the cities and made sure that no whites enter their areas.
The Gavião
and Guajajára avoided contact with the outside world because, unlike the majority population, they knew straight away: This disease brings death.
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