RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Brazil’s health regulator on Sunday approved urgent use of Sinovac and AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines, allowing Latin America’s largest nation to initiate an immunization program that is subject to delay and political disputes.
Brazil currently has 6 million doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccine ready to distribute in the coming days and awaits the arrival of 2 million doses of the vaccine made by AstraZeneca and partner Oxford University.
“This is good news for Brazil, but 6 million doses are very few. It will not allow the entire at-risk population to be fully immunized, nor is it clear how soon the country will get more vaccines, ”said Ethel Maciel, an epidemiologist at the Federal University of Espirito Santo.
On Saturday evening, the health authority Anvisa rejected an application for the use of a Russian vaccine called Sputnik V, submitted by the Brazilian company União Química. Anvisa said it did not evaluate the application because it did not meet the minimum requirements to start an analysis.
Vaccination in Brazil starts later than in neighboring countries such as Argentina and Chile, despite a robust public health system and decades of experience in vaccination campaigns. The process to propose and approve the COVID-19 vaccines was fraught with conflict as allies of President Jair Bolsonaro sought to cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Sinovac backed by its political rival, the state government. Sao Paulo, João Doria.
“The rivalry between Brasilia and the state governments prevented any partnership,” said Maurício Santoro, professor of political science at the University of Rio de Janeiro State. “The governor lost leadership, but allowed Bolsonaro to act more quickly to ensure the start of the vaccination.”
The priority of vaccination will be health workers on the front lines against the coronavirus. The federal government’s vaccination begins Wednesday, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said on Sunday.
The state of Sao Paulo started immunization on Sunday following Anvisa’s decision. Mônica Calazans, a 54-year-old nurse who works on the front lines of the coronavirus, was vaccinated in a ceremony led by Doria. Calazans had participated in the CoronaVac clinical study. As more doses become available, immunization will be extended to others, including indigenous people, 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 is considering extending the time between the administration of the first and second dose of immunizers to reach more people quickly, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said in Manaus on Monday.
The Amazon city of Manaus, the state’s first capital whose health system collapsed in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, is in a critical situation again, with oxygen starvation in some hospitals. Doctors in the Amazon rainforest’s largest city must choose which COVID-19 patients can breathe amid diminishing oxygen supplies.
Hospitals in Manaus, an isolated city of 2.2 million people, admitted few new COVID-19 patients, causing many to suffer from the disease at home and some to die. Other Brazilian states have offered to receive patients and relieve Manaus’s health system.
Bolsonaro, who has 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 dependent on the government of Sao Paulo. Gov. Doria has criticized Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic.
The Sao Paulo government had sparked suspicion with a confusing announcement about the results of the CoronaVac vaccine. Doria announced on January 7 that the immunizer efficacy was 78% for mild patients and 100% for severe cases. A week later, during a press conference in which the governor was absent, officials from his government said the clinical efficacy of CoronaVac was only about 50%.
Some scientists warn that not enough data has been published on the effectiveness or safety of Sinovac’s vaccine. It has yet to be tested on tens of thousands of people in the kind of rigorous research deemed necessary before it is licensed for wide use.
Global health authorities have said that any vaccine that is at least 50% effective would be helpful. Indonesia, China and Bolivia have granted conditional approval for CoronaVac.
Despite the doubts and discredit of some of the Brazilian president’s supporters over vaccines, many people in Brazil are hoping to get the vaccine.
“I plan to get vaccinated and so do my family,” said Thiago Salgado, 39, a music teacher.
The government’s projection is to end 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 retiree who supports Bolsonaro, lives in Rio de Janeiro and said she was not afraid of getting vaccinated, and noted questions about the effectiveness of the Sinovac vaccine.
“I’ve been in my house for a year and a half, I can stay for another two or three months without any problems,” said Esteves.