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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday rejected the announced purchase of 46 million doses of a potential vaccine against the coronavirus being developed by a Chinese company and tested in a state governed by a political rival, prompting some to question if he was allowing politics to steer public health decisions. “The Brazilian people will not be anyone’s guinea pig,” Bolsonaro said on his social media channels, adding that the vaccine has not yet completed testing, which is the case with all potential vaccines for the virus. “My decision is to not purchase such a vaccine.” (Savarese, 10/21)

Europe’s second wave of the coronavirus pandemic is reviving the pressure on hospitals in the worst-hit cities, and forcing health-care systems around the continent to devise contingency plans that draw on the lessons of this spring’s deadly first wave. Hospitals in Paris are stockpiling drugs and protective equipment to avoid a repeat of shortfalls that plagued them earlier this year. Hospitals across Spain have drawn up “elasticity plans” to increase the number of beds for Covid-19 patients as cases multiply. In Lombardy, the northern Italian region where Europe’s outbreak began in early 2020, the health-care system is preparing to move patients to where there is space for them, to prevent intensive-care units from being overwhelmed as happened in coronavirus hot spots this spring. (Bisserbe, Sylvers and Martinez, 10/21)

South Korean officials refused on Thursday to suspend a seasonal influenza inoculation effort, despite growing calls for a halt, including an appeal from a key group of doctors, after the deaths of at least 13 of those vaccinated. Health authorities said they found no direct links between the deaths and the vaccines. (Shin and Cha, 10/21)

A day after donning a face mask for the first time during a liturgical service, Pope Francis was back to his mask-less old ways Wednesday despite surging coronavirus infections across Europe and growing criticism of his behavior and the example he is setting. Francis shunned a face mask again during his Wednesday general audience in the Vatican auditorium, and didn’t wear one when he greeted a half-dozen mask-less bishops at the end. He shook hands and leaned in to chat privately with each one. While the clerics wore masks while seated during the audience, all but one took his mask off to speak to the pope. Only one kept it on, and by the end of his tete-a-tete with Francis, had lowered it under his chin. (Winfield, 10/21)

Czechs had been assured it wouldn’t happen again. But amid a record surge of coronavirus infections that’s threatening the entire health system with collapse, the Czech Republic is adopting on Thursday exactly the same massive restrictions it slapped on citizens in the spring. Prime Minister Andrej Babis had repeatedly said these measures would never return. “We have no time to wait,” Babis explained Wednesday. “The surge is enormous.” (Janicek, 10/22)