A Brazilian lawmaker’s information request to the military revealed the purchase of 35,000 Viagra pills and over half a million dollars’ worth of penile implants, the lawmaker said Wednesday, demanding the Armed Forces explain the use of taxpayers’ funding for those purposes.
Representative Elías Vaz of the Socialist Party of Brazil condemned conservative President Jair Bolsonaro and the military for what he branded a misuse of public funds, demanding that federal government spend more on medication for the general public than for veterans.
Vaz initially announced he had found, through requested government disclosures, that the Armed Forces had invested in purchasing 35,000 pills of Sildenafil, sold internationally under the brand names Viagra and Revatio. Some dosages of Sildenafil are used to treat erectile dysfunction. The lawmaker demanded the Defense Ministry explain the purchase, conducted with taxpayers’ dollars.
“We need to understand why the Bolsonaro government is spending public money to buy Viagra in such a high quantity,” Vaz said. “Health units throughout the entire country are frequently facing shortages of medicine, in insulin, to treat patients with chronic illnesses, and the Armed Forces are receiving thousands of Viagra pills. Society deserves an explanation.”
The Brazilian Navy and Air Force responded to the demands for an explanation by claiming the medicine was meant to treat patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, an approved use for Sildenafil. Brazil’s O Globo newspaper reported on Tuesday, however, that the information released by Vaz’s request shows the pills purchased were 25- or 50-milligram doses.
“Sildenafil is approved … for pulmonary arterial hypertension at a dose of 20 milligrams, which can be prescribed for eight hours a day up to a maximum of four tablets every eight hours,” pulmonologist Veronica Amado told O Globo. “Using 25-milligram doses (like Viagra’s) doesn’t have grave health impacts, however, this is a programming and dosage different from that which has been studied, with doses exceeding or lower than those recommended.”
The package insert with Sildenafil of all brands in Brazil reportedly recommends the higher-dosage pills only for treating erectile dysfunction.
Vaz revealed another medical purchase on Wednesday for which he demanded an explanation from the Armed Forces: 60 penile implants worth, he claimed, $744,680 (3.5 million Brazilian reais).
“After denouncing that the Bolsonaro government approved the purchase of 35,000 Viagras for the Armed Forces, I found a million-dollar expenditure for penile implants for the military,” Vaz wrote on Twitter. “Do you know how much these cost each? Between 50 and 60 thousand! [$10,617.96-$12,741.56] And YOU are paying that bill.”
In a statement to the Globo network’s G1 outlet, the Brazilian Army denied having purchased 60 penile implants, saying it had only paid for three.
“The Army Social Communication Center clarifies that only 3 (three) penile prostheses were acquired by the Brazilian Army, in 2021, for surgeries for users of the Army Health Fund (FUSEx) and not 60 (sixty),” the military statement read as published by G1. “The amount of 60 (sixty) represents the estimate contained in the price registration minutes and not actually what was committed, settled, and paid for by the Military Health Organizations.”
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro arrives to attend the annual military exercises by the Navy, Army and Air Force, in Formosa, Brazil, Monday, Aug. 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
“It is the responsibility of the Army Health System to assist male patients who suffer from various types of illnesses that may require surgery to implant the aforementioned prosthesis,” the Army asserted.
Bolsonaro, himself a Brazilian military veteran, dismissed the outrage over the alleged purchases on Wednesday, offering a brief history of the research that led to the development of Viagra.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s former president, greets supporters outside of the Sindicato dos Metalurgicos do ABC on November 9, 2019 in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil. (Pedro Vilela/Getty Images)
“15 or 20 years ago they were researching something to combat pulmonary arterial hypertension, which killed a lot,” Bolsonaro explained during a morning coffee meeting with pastors and Evangelical leaders. “And it [Viagra] was discovered as a remedy for that. Parallel to that, also, that same remedy worked for rheumatological diseases and, as a collateral effect, something showed up there that combats sexual impotence.”
“This was later known as Viagra,” the president concluded. “Therefore, the Armed Forces buy Viagra to fight pulmonary arterial hypertension and rheumatological disease.”
Bolsonaro also condemned the “bad-faith” and “ignorant” Brazilian media for allegedly attempting to create a scandal and insisted the purchases were likely for inactive reservists or retirees.
The president has not, at press time, addressed the alleged penile implant purchases.
The latest attempt from the left to attack Bolsonaro comes in an election year. Bolsonaro will likely reach a run-off vote against far-left socialist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Lula, whose tenure was largely defined by the “Operation Car Wash” corruption scandal, could not participate in the 2018 election that made Bolsonaro president because he had been sentenced to over a decade in prison for buying a luxury beachfront property with government funds. In 2021, the leftist-controlled Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the nation’s top court, invalidated Lula’s conviction and allowed him to run for public office again.
Lula has maintained a commanding lead in polls against Bolsonaro for years – until this Wednesday, when the firm PoderData documented a significant shift in momentum towards Bolsonaro.
“The opinion survey by PoderData showed Lula drawing 40% of voter intentions versus 35% for Bolsonaro if the October election were held on Wednesday,” Reuters observed. “In mid-March, when Bolsonaro’s former justice minister was still in the running, Lula also had 40% support but the incumbent drew just 30%.”
Brazilians go to the polls in October.