Since then, however, the tables have turned. The vaccination rate has ramped up considerably in Brazil and stalled in the U.S. According to data compiled by The New York Times, as of Oct. 14, about 73 percent of Brazilians have received at least one dose — compared with just 66 percent in the U.S. The U.S. still comes out on top in terms of its fully vaccinated population, with 57 percent versus 47 percent in Brazil. But this gap between Brazil’s fully and partially vaccinated seems poised to close: A July survey showed that 94 percent of Brazilians plan to get the coronavirus vaccine.

What happened? Despite rampant misinformation, political infighting, and failures of leadership at the highest levels, Brazil’s vaccination campaign has succeeded because the country has one thing the U.S. does not: an unbreakable vaccine culture.

As Gilberto Hochman, a public health researcher at Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, a part of Brazil’s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, has previously written, Brazil’s vaccination culture has rocky origins. In 1904, when the young republic was attempting to eradicate smallpox and yellow fever in Rio de Janeiro, health officials invaded the houses of the city’s impoverished residents and forcefully vaccinated them. The residents countered with what has come to be known as the “Vaccine Revolt,” a week-long street rebellion that left 30 people dead and ultimately brought an end to mandatory vaccination. The revolt is so ingrained in the public memory that a Rio de Janeiro carnival group pays homage every year to one of the revolt’s leaders, an Afro-Brazilian named Horácio José da Silva, also known as Prata Preta, or “Black Silver.”