Brazil’s vaccine rollout is just the latest misstep by its health ministry, which President Jair Bolsonaro has stocked with active-duty and retired military men with little public health experience. Those newcomers failed to grasp how quickly they needed to move to secure supplies amid heated global competition, and the importance of hedging their bets by striking deals with multiple manufacturers, according to a Reuters report.

The ministry’s hesitance led to a missed opportunity back in August to order 70 million doses of a vaccine made by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, with delivery starting in December.

The country’s principle strategy — to manufacture 100m doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine locally — has been plagued by repeated delays. AstraZeneca last week sent 2m emergency doses to help Brazil get started. Meanwhile, Brazil’s Health Ministry has yet to sign deals with other vaccine makers.

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