SAO PAULO (AP) – Brazilian marketing manager Eduardo Menga is extra careful when it comes to his health. During the pandemic, he consulted a slew of doctors to make sure he was in good shape and uprooted his family from Rio de Janeiro to a quiet rural town where he works remotely. His wife Bianca Rinaldi, an actress, has not worked since March.
Menga and Rinaldi are among a minority of Brazilians who will pay for a COVID-19 vaccine if an association of private clinics can strike a deal to bring 5 million shots to Latin America’s most uneven country. President Jair Bolsonaro, who has come under fire for his government’s handling of the pandemic, has pledged not to interfere.
“When I go to a restaurant and pay for my own food, I don’t bring anyone else’s,” said 68-year-old Menga from his home in Jundiai, Sao Paulo. “I don’t think getting a vaccine from a private clinic will take it from anyone else waiting in the public system. It could be an alternate phrase, and those who have the chance should take it. “
Amidst the government’s stumbling vaccination, many wealthy Brazilians want to find a fast track to vaccination, leading to backlash from some public health experts and sparking debate on social media, editorial pages and talk shows.
There is a global concern that the privileged could play around the system of getting themselves vaccinated before others. When affiliates in countries like Turkey, Morocco and Spain were caught leaping forward, they were criticized, to investigate or forced resignation.
Brazil has also had reports of line jumpers, but the nation stands out because maneuvering doesn’t just happen in the shadows. Some are out in the open, with the prosperous coordinating efforts endorsed by the government, according to Roberto DaMatta, an emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame.
“The pandemic makes Brazil’s inequality clearer, because the virus doesn’t choose social class, but the cure could be,” said DaMatta, who wrote the book “Do You Know Who You’re Talking To?” a portrait of Brazilian privilege. It was inspired by episodes during the pandemic, including a judge who refused a police officer’s order to put on a mask, then called the state security chief to protest and collected his 100 reais ($ 20) fine.
“The wealthy in Brazil have normalized slavery for centuries. Now they accept that more poor and black people are dying from COVID, and they are putting little pressure on a government that has sabotaged the rollout. The use of the vaccine in this scenario may depend on the organization, so the wealthy are organizing, ”DaMatta told The Associated Press.
Business leaders and some authorities defend attempts to secure a vaccine as a stimulus for Brazil’s economic reboot. And anyway, they argue, why should the wealthy not buy vaccines when government efforts fall short? So far, Brazil has 13.9 million injections available to a population of 210 million people, and has given the first of two injections to just 1% of citizens since the immunizations began January 18.
Health experts, for their part, regard such efforts as unethical, as vaccines are scarce worldwide and groups at risk have a more immediate need to prevent death; nearly 230,000 Brazilians have already died of COVID-19, the second highest number in the world.
And while people over 65 like Menga top the list, Brazil’s slow rollout, which can take up to 16 months, means it could be a long time before he gets a chance, and even longer for his wife, who is 46. .
The debate over the unfair distribution of vaccines in Brazil first flared up after Supreme Court officials reportedly maneuvered to set aside about 7,000 COVID-19 vaccines for themselves and their families; the government lab that will make and distribute recordings of AstraZeneca declined, saying it cannot reserve recordings. Sao Paulo prosecutors have lobbied for inclusion in priority groups in addition to health workers.
After those efforts failed, Brazil’s private health clinics stepped in to try to evade government procurement. Executives of the Brazilian Association of Private Clinics negotiated directly with the Indian pharmaceutical company Bharat Biotech for their COVAXIN admission. The association of approximately 30,000 private clinics registers potential clients on a waiting list.
Brazil has no deals with Bharat and its health regulator has yet to approve COVAXIN, but as a sign of what the future may hold if the deal goes through, the Rio Grande do Sul State Judges Association last month asked its members if they were interested. when buying shots from the clinic association.
Gonzalo Vecina, who led Brazil’s health agency between 1999 and 2003, says such private sector efforts are a major problem not only on ethical and legal grounds, but also for public health.
“The private network does not have to follow the priority protocol of the Ministry of Health. So if this goes on, we’ll have a line for people who have $ 200 where you can get a shot next week, and another that won’t move for months, ”said Vecina.
“What everyone needs to understand is that the pandemic will not end if it doesn’t end for everyone.”
Most of the planet relies on public health networks to deliver vaccines, and few countries with large populations use private channels for distribution. A notable exception is the US, where Americans can get their photos from pharmacies, clinics and other private facilities. Hospitals in at least eight US states have been accused of favor board members, trustees, family members and donors who should have waited their turn.
On January 26, Bolsonaro said he had signed a letter to support a bid from a group of Brazilian executives to score 33 million doses of the AstraZeneca injection, half of which can be used as they please and the other half. has been donated to the country’s public health system. .
Brazilian media reported that at least 11 companies were in the group, including state oil company Petrobras, steelmaker Gerdau and telephone company Oi, all of which declined to comment.
“That would help the economy a lot, and also those who might want to get vaccinated,” Bolsonaro said of the companies’ efforts. Economy Minister Paulo Guedes called the effort “apparently very good”.
In contrast, a board of business leaders in neighboring Colombia found themselves on a roadblock when it requested permission to purchase COVID-19 footage. Colombia’s health minister said the possibility would not be considered until the second stage of immunization, after all health professionals and people over 60 have received their injection.
Despite Bolsonaro’s support, AstraZeneca denied the efforts of the Brazilian executives, saying in a statement that it would not supply Brazil’s private sector, at least for now. The Sao Paulo industry federation released a statement two days later denying that such negotiations had ever been conducted.
A former governor of Brazil’s central bank, Armínio Fraga, said he opposes measures taken by wealthier Brazilians and fears vaccine prices could rise if companies were allowed to bid.
“We live in a moment of global scarcity,” said Fraga, a partner at investment firm Gavea Investimentos, in an online interview with Valor newspaper. “We need some coordination so that priority groups are respected.” ____
AP reporters Suzan Fraser contributed from Ankara, Elena Becatoros from Athens, Aritz Parra from Madrid, Mosa’ab Elshamy from Rabat and Russ Bynum from Savannah, Georgia.