RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Brazil’s health regulator approved the urgent use of coronavirus vaccines produced by Sinovac and AstraZeneca on Sunday, allowing Latin America’s largest nation to begin an immunization program that has been subject to political delays and disputes .
Brazil currently has 6 million doses of CoronaVac Sinovac vaccine ready to be distributed in the next few days and is awaiting the arrival of 2 million doses of vaccine made by AstraZeneca and its Oxford University partner.
“This is good news for Brazil, but 6 million doses are still very few. It will not allow the entire population at risk to be completely immunized, nor is it clear how quickly the country will get more vaccines, “said Ethel Maciel, an epidemiologist at the Federal University of Espirito Santo.
On Saturday night, health regulator Anvisa rejected a request to use a Russian vaccine called Sputnik V, submitted by the Brazilian company União Química. Anvisa said it did not evaluate the application because it does not meet the minimum requirements to start an analysis.
Vaccination in Brazil starts later than neighbors such as Argentina and Chile, despite a robust public health system and decades of experience in immunization campaigns. The process of presenting and approving COVID-19 vaccines has been fraught with controversy, as President Jair Bolsonaro’s allies have tried to question the effectiveness of the Sinovac shooting by his political rival, Sao Paulo Governor João Doria.
“Rivalry between Brazil and state governments has hampered any co-operation,” said Maurício Santoro, a professor of political science at Rio de Janeiro State University. “The governor lost his leadership position, but made Bolsonaro act faster to guarantee the start of vaccination.”
The priority of vaccination will be health professionals on the front line against coronavirus. Vaccination by the federal government will begin on Wednesday, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said on Sunday.
The state of Sao Paulo began immunization on Sunday after the Anvisa decision. Mônica Calazans, a 54-year-old nurse who works on the coronavirus front line, was vaccinated in a ceremony led by Doria. Calazani participated in the CoronaVac clinical trial. As more doses become available, immunization will be extended to others, including the indigenous population, people over the age of 60 and people with pre-existing diseases, according to the vaccination plan presented by the federal government.
The Brazilian government plans to extend the time between applying the first and second doses of immunizers to reach more people quickly, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said Monday in Manaus.
The Amazonian city of Manaus, the first state capital whose health system collapsed in 2020 due to the pandemic, is once again facing a critical situation, with a lack of oxygen in some hospitals. Doctors in the largest city in the Amazon rainforest must choose which patients with COVID-19 can breathe amid reduced oxygen stocks.
Hospitals in Manaus, an isolated city of 2.2 million people, have admitted few new patients with COVID-19, causing many to suffer from the disease at home and some to die. Other Brazilian states have offered to receive patients and decongest Manaus’ health system.
Bolsonaro, who contracted COVID-19 and said in the past that he does not intend to be vaccinated, has raised suspicions about the effectiveness of the Chinese vaccine, which will be produced locally by an institute under the government of Sao Paulo. Governor Doria criticized the way Bolsonaro treated the pandemic.
The government in Sao Paulo has generated distrust through a confusing announcement about the results of the CoronaVac vaccine. Doria announced on January 7 that the effectiveness of the immunizer was 78% for mild patients and 100% for severe cases. A week later, at a press conference in which the governor was absent, his government officials said that the clinical effectiveness of CoronaVac was only about 50%.
Some scientists warn that not enough data have been published on the efficacy or safety of the Sinovac vaccine. It has not yet been tested on tens of thousands of people in the rigorous study deemed necessary before it was authorized for widespread use.
Global health authorities have said that any vaccine that is at least 50% effective would be useful. Indonesia, China and Bolivia have granted conditional authorization for CoronaVac.
Despite doubts and discredit from some supporters of the Brazilian president about vaccines, many people in Brazil hope to receive the vaccine.
“I’m going to get my family vaccinated,” said Thiago Salgado, 39, a music teacher.
The government’s projection is to end in 2021 with at least 354 million doses between the contracts for the two vaccines and those that will be produced locally. If this figure were applied, it would be enough to fully immunize at least 80% of Brazilians.
Raquel Esteves, a 74-year-old pensioner who supports Bolsonaro, lives in Rio de Janeiro and said she is not looking forward to getting vaccinated, noting questions about the effectiveness of the Sinovac vaccine.
“I’ve been in my house for a year and a half, I can stay without problems for another two or three months,” Esteves said.