Joana Amaral Dias

Joana Amaral Dias is daughter of Carlos Amaral Dias and Teresa Maria Nunes Vicente, both of them doctors. She attended the pharmacy program at the University of Coimbra as a freshwoman, however, she would graduate in psychology at the same university. She has a brother, Henrique, and a sister, Leonor. She is also half-sister of Carlota, from her father second marriage. Joana Amaral Dias is mother of a boy, Vicente, born in 1997 and girl, Luz born in 2016. Amaral Dias also formally adopted a boy in September 2019, though not many details have been released about the child.

Joana is one of the standard bearers of the Covid vaccine skepticism in Portugal.[3][4][5] She has propagated a narrative contrary to the medical and scientific consensus in her social media platforms, as well as on her regular TV appearances.

Her position is based on the premise that most of the specialists are regularly lying, as it has been proved that many of them received directly or indirectly payments from big pharma, or exaggerate results, in order to advance their agenda.[6]

Being one of the main covid vaccine critics, she has made several false or decontextualized statements. She has asserted that the Covid-19 vaccine does not reduce contagion.[7] She has stated that for people under 50 years old the vaccine is more dangerous than covid-19.[8]

The same logic is applied to her skepticism of climate change.[9]

In reaction to the record breaking heat wave in London, Joana wrote in Novo Semanário that in June 1885 and July 1886 temperatures had been higher at 162°F and 155°F respectively.[10] It is unclear where she obtained those numbers, as they would be higher than any atmospheric temperature ever recorded.