RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – The Brazilian health regulatory agency on Sunday approved the urgent use of Sinovac and AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines, allowing the largest nation in Latin America to start an immunization program that is subject to delays and political disputes.
Brazil currently has 6 million doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccine ready for distribution in the coming days and awaits the arrival of 2 million doses of the vaccine manufactured by AstraZeneca and partner Oxford University.
“It is good news for Brazil, but 6 million doses are still very few. It will not allow the entire population at risk to be fully immunized, nor is it clear how quickly the country will get more vaccines, ”said Ethel Maciel, an epidemiologist at the Federal University of Espírito Santo.
On Saturday night, the health regulatory agency Anvisa rejected an application for the use of a Russian vaccine called Sputnik V, submitted by the Brazilian company União Química. Anvisa reported that it did not evaluate the application because it did not meet the minimum requirements to start an analysis.
Vaccination in Brazil is starting later than in neighbors like Argentina and Chile, despite a robust public health system and decades of experience with immunization campaigns. The process of presenting and approving the COVID-19 vaccines was fraught with conflict, as allies of President Jair Bolsonaro sought to doubt the effectiveness of the Sinovac shot supported by his political rival, the governor of São Paulo, João Doria.
“The rivalry between Brasília and the state governments prevented any cooperative work,” said Maurício Santoro, professor of political science at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. “The governor lost his leadership, but he made Bolsonaro act more quickly to guarantee the start of the vaccination.”
The priority of vaccination will be health professionals on the front line against coronavirus. The federal government’s vaccination will begin on Wednesday, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said on Sunday.
The state of São Paulo started immunization on Sunday after Anvisa’s decision. Monica Calazans, a 54-year-old nurse who works on the front line of the coronavirus, was vaccinated in a ceremony led by Doria. Calazans had participated in the CoronaVac clinical trial. As more doses are available, immunization will be extended to other people, including the indigenous population, people over 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 application of the first and second doses of immunizers to reach people more quickly, said Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello in Manaus on Monday.
The Amazonian city of Manaus, the first capital of the state whose health system collapsed in 2020 due to the pandemic, is again experiencing a critical situation, with a lack of oxygen in some hospitals. Doctors in the largest city in the Amazon rainforest are having to choose which patients with COVID-19 can breathe amid ever-diminishing supplies of oxygen.
Hospitals in Manaus, an isolated city of 2.2 million inhabitants, 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 the health system in Manaus.
Bolsonaro, who hired COVID-19 and said in the past that he does not plan to be vaccinated, raised suspicions about the effectiveness of the Chinese vaccine, which will be produced locally by an institute dependent on the government of São Paulo. Governor Doria criticized the way Bolsonaro dealt with the pandemic.
The government of São Paulo generated suspicion with a confused 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 news conference in which the governor was absent, government officials said CoronaVac’s clinical effectiveness was only 50%.
Some scientists warn that insufficient data have been published on the efficacy or safety of the Sinovac vaccine. It still needs to be tested on tens of thousands of people in the kind of rigorous study deemed necessary before it is licensed for wide use.
Global health officials said any vaccine at least 50% effective would be useful. Indonesia, China and Bolivia have granted conditional authorization to CoronaVac.
Despite the doubts and discredit of some supporters of the President of Brazil regarding vaccines, many people in Brazil hope to obtain the vaccine.
“I intend to vaccinate myself and my family too,” 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 value 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 anxious to get vaccinated, highlighting doubts about the effectiveness of the Sinovac vaccine.
“I have been inside the house for a year and a half, I can stay two or three months without any problems,” said Esteves.