Last sighting of cartoon was in mid-December when he was filmed refusing to shake Jair Bolsonaro’s hand at a health ministry event
He is a national treasure credited with helping free South America’s largest nation from the scourge of polio and saving countless Brazilian lives.
But in Brazil’s latest hour of need Zé Gotinha – a tear-shaped animation who has spent the last three decades promoting vaccination – has gone missing in action, as efforts to halt one of the most devastating Covid outbreaks on Earth fall afoul of the country’s toxic politics.
