Joana Beatriz Nunes Vicente Amaral Dias (born 3 May 1975) is a Portuguese

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and

clinical psychologist Clinical psychology is an integration of social science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and persona ...

. She was member of the

Portuguese Parliament The Assembly of the Republic (Portuguese: ''Assembleia da República'', ), commonly referred to as simply Parliament (Portuguese: ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral parliament of Portugal. According to the Constitution of Portugal, the parliament ...

for the

Left Bloc Left Bloc may refer to: * Left Bloc (Portugal), a political party in Portugal * Left Bloc (Croatia), a political alliance in Croatia * Left Bloc (Hungary) The Left Bloc (in Hungarian: ''Baloldali Blokk'') was a political alliance in Hungary, f ...

(2002–2005). Amaral Dias was the National Democratic Alternative head of list for the

2024 European Parliament election 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

Personal life

She is the daughter of

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

Carlos Amaral Dias. Besides clinical practice, university teaching and scientific research, she is the author of numerous papers and scholarly articles. In 2010 she published the book ''Maníacos de Qualidade'' ("Maniacs of Quality"), a biographical and psychological analysis of historical figures in Portugal. She attended the

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...

program at the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coi ...

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.

Political career

She was one of the highest ranked party members of the

Bloco de Esquerda The Left Bloc ( pt, Bloco de Esquerda, ; abbr. BE, colloquially shortened as O Bloco) is a left-wing populist, democratic socialist political party in Portugal founded in 1999. It is currently led by Catarina Martins. History Formation and ...

(Left Bloc), although elected for member of the

as an independent (2002–2005). In the Portuguese presidential election, 2006 she was a supporter of Mário Soares with a mandate for the youth. She is a columnist and political analyst. Joana Amaral Dias collaborated with the '' Diário de Notícias'', TSF,

SIC The Latin adverb ''sic'' (; "thus", "just as"; in full: , "thus was it written") inserted after a quoted word or passage indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated exactly as found in the source text, complete with any e ...

, and SIC Notícias. She authored the political column on RTP N and wrote in the newspaper '' Correio da Manhã'' and the

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

Frontal Cortex.

Controversies

Joana is one of the standard bearers of the Covid vaccine skepticism in Portugal. 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. 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. She has stated that for people under 50 years old the vaccine is more dangerous than covid-19. The same logic is applied to her skepticism of climate change. 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. It is unclear where she obtained those numbers, as they would be higher than any atmospheric temperature ever recorded.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dias, Joana Amaral Portuguese politicians Portuguese women writers 1973 births Living people University of Coimbra alumni Portuguese people of Angolan descent COVID-19 conspiracy theorists