The moving photo of Tawy, from the Zo’é tribe, who carried his father 12 hours through the jungle to vaccinate him against Covid

In the Zo’é tribe, there are no anti-vaccines. It’s only been 40 years since they contacted the outside world, but they know firsthand what it means to be almost exterminated by a disease. They don’t want it to happen again.

In the big cities, get vaccinated against coronavirus It is as simple as going by car to the door of the health center and waiting a few minutes for your turn.

But in the Amazon jungle vaccination teams cannot reach many villages, because they are in areas of difficult access. So it is the natives who come to them.

Brazilian physician Erik Jennings Simoes tells and Instagram the story of Tawy, a 24-year-old indigenous youth from the Zo’é tribe, who he carried his 67-year-old father Wahu on his back for 12 hours to vaccinate him against covid:

The one-way trip to the vaccination center lasted 6 hours in the middle of the jungle, crossing hills and streams. And after giving him the vaccine, another 6 hours back home with his father in tow.

Until now, There has been no case of coronavirus in the Zo’é tribe. They have been lucky: More than 1,000 registered indigenous people have died from covid in the Amazon, and many others unaccounted for.

The Zo’e tribe is composed of just over 300 people, and had remained isolated until relatively recently, 1982.

They are known because they go completely naked, and they have a spider monkey bone inserted into their lower lip, as you can see in the opening photo. Although as adults they change it for a piece of wood.

Girls insert this bone in their lip at the age of 7, and boys at 9. It is just an ornament, a symbol of beauty.

They were contacted by some missionaries in the 1980s, and since then they decided to maintain contact with the outside world. Diseases brought by visitors decimated its populationAnd they were about to disappear.

They have only known modern science for 40 years, but they know perfectly well that a massive contagion of covid could exterminate them, and only if they are vaccinated can they be saved, as has already happened with other diseases for which they had to be vaccinated decades ago.

That is why Tawy, when he learned that a vaccination center had been set up near his village, did not hesitate to carry his father on his back for 12 hours, to get him vaccinated. Wahu suffers from osteoarthritis in his knees, as can be seen in the photo, and cannot walk much.

A lesson in common sense, sense of duty and filial love, which invites reflection.