Brazil, hotbed for COVID-19 vaccine testing, may struggle to produce its own

FILE PHOTO: A nurse puts on a bandage after administering China's SinoVac coronavirus potential vaccine to volunteer and doctor Ivan Franca at Emilio Ribas Institute in Sao Paulo, Brazil July 30, 2020. REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian officials say they can start making COVID-19 vaccines developed by British and Chinese researchers within a year. Experts say it will take at least twice as long, leaving Brazil reliant on imports to slow the world's second-worst outbreak.

If Brazil's underfunded medical institutions are unable to meet their ambitious goals, it would mark the latest failure by President Jair Bolsonaro's government to control the virus. It would also leave Brazil vulnerable to a frenzied global scramble for vaccine supplies.