Brazil: missionaries 'turning tribes against coronavirus vaccine'

Health workers were reportedly attacked with bows and arrows after visiting an indigenous community in Amazonas

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Medical teams working to immunise Brazil's remote indigenous villages against the coronavirus have encountered fierce resistance in some communities where evangelical missionaries are stoking fears of the vaccine, say tribal leaders and advocates.

On the Sao Francisco reservation in the state of Amazonas, Jamamadi villagers sent health workers packing with bows and arrows when they visited by helicopter this month, said Claudemir da Silva, an Apurina leader representing indigenous communities on the Purus river, a tributary of the Xingu.