62% of Brazil’s Amazon indigenous people fully vaccinated against Covid-19

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Covid-19 vaccination of indigenous people living in villages in Legal Amazon states (Pará, Mato Grosso, Maranhão, Amapá, Amazonas, Rondônia, Roraima, Acre and Tocantins) reached 77% coverage for the first dose and 62% for the second. The data are from the Ministry of Health’s official platform compiled up to Friday, June 18.

Vaccination coverage of indigenous people in this region is about 10 percentage points lower than that recorded among traditional peoples across the country – the national rate stands at 83% for the first dose and 72% for the second. The group is considered a priority by the National Immunization Plan.

However, an analysis by microregions shows that the rate is not consistent with the situation of all indigenous peoples in the forest. In fact, there is a gap between villages. According to specialists and people involved in the campaign, the main factor is religious influence. The regions where there is a greater presence of pastors opposed to vaccination show the lowest rates.

The states of Acre and Pará include the indigenous districts with the lowest rates. They have not reached 60% of indigenous people vaccinated with the second dose – up to 20 percentage points below what is observed in ethnic groups throughout Brazil. All other states in the Legal Amazon maintain a rate equal to or higher than 60% in vaccines administered, rates that vary greatly among regions.

Districts most affected by fake news

Two Special Indigenous Health Districts (DSEIs) in Pará show the worst vaccination rates in Brazil. Kayapó do Pará and Rio Tapajós, with 43% and 41% immunization rates of ethnic groups with the first dose. In February, sources from the Rio Tapajós DSEI had reported resistance to vaccination linked to the spread of fake news, like a message that referred to the “vaccine with the chip of the beast.”

The same sources also say that they simply “don’t want the vaccine.” According to Caetano Scanavinno of the Health and Joy Project based in the region, the issue persists.

“Historically, there has always been resistance to ‘white people’s’ medicine. But what we are now seeing is an above average refusal, also helped by a disinformation and fake news campaign spread in an already complicated region,” he said.

“There is much misinformation being spread, with absurd stories such as a chip implanted in the body of anyone who is vaccinated, to be monitored by the Chinese, or that the vaccine is produced from abortion embryos. Or even that if you are vaccinated, you will turn into an alligator, as the president said. This misinformation causes fear and kills.”

Religion and pastors’ denialism

Why do some DSEIs have such a lower coverage than others? What is causing the gap in rates between them?

Junqueira cites an example: “There is a case that I remember: a team on a boat got off and someone came and said: ‘thank you very much for coming, but no one is going to be vaccinated here, you may continue your trip’.” The concern in considering the religious aspect led the ISA to create a booklet directed specifically to the evangelical public.

The comparison among the four areas of the Xingu indigenous territory is a clear example of religious influence as well as of misinformation. The two areas with the highest number of deaths and rejection to the vaccine are directly influenced by both issues.

Oreme Ikpeng from the Ikpeng people in the Moygu village in mid Xingu, emphasizes the obvious: they are different peoples with different religions. In the whole Xingu territory 79% have been administered the second dose, according to the Ministry of Health. There is a variation among the four regions within the indigenous land.

“We are 16 peoples speaking the language, the culture, the tradition. We have various forms of communication between us and we are trying to guide those who do not want the vaccine. But forcing is not our way of solving things,” said Oreme.

Attempting contact

If forcing is not the way, Evelin Placido dos Santos, a nurse in the Immunization technical area of the Xingu Project from the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), is trying to engage in dialogue and ask for support. She worked in the campaign during the H1N1 epidemic in the indigenous territories. At the time, also with a certain mistrust, she was able to persuade pastors to be vaccinated in front of the villagers and thus demonstrate the safety of the vaccine.

“With Covid, pastors were open, I contacted them by phone and they said they would talk to the communities, they would encourage vaccination, they would talk about the importance of the vaccine, but, in some situations, I did not feel receptivity. The pastor even said: ‘we are going to trust it, as if we were very young, right?” So far, 438 indigenous people have died from Covid-19.

Amazon, Amazonas and reality in Brazil

Vaccination coverage of indigenous people in the Legal Amazon is below the rate for the same group nationwide. The national rate of vaccinated indigenous people stands at 83% for the first dose and 72% for the second – close to 10 percentage points higher than the figure seen when analyzing only indigenous people in the nine states.

In addition to districts reporting a strong influence of religious denialism, there is at least one other DSEI with low vaccination rates where the impact may be related to logistical challenges.

The Alto Rio Negro DSEI, in Amazonas, shows a 36% adherence to the second dose. Luiz Penha Tukano, biologist in charge of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon’s (COIAB) Emergency Projects monitors the region. Fake news is also one of the reasons for rejection to the vaccine, but he stresses another point.

“Many of these districts here are also very dependent on logistics. So, they are struggling to get in, the team takes 30 days to vaccinate. They have to be vaccinated and come back. Probably they are probably not updating the immunization data system properly,” he says.

Indigenous people were included in the first four priority groups for vaccination, totaling 151 days of vaccination campaign. By February 18, only 30% had been vaccinated in the Legal Amazon.

Since the beginning of the campaign, the total number of indigenous individuals to be vaccinated has also changed: according to the Ministry of Health, the census has been updated. The initial projection was to vaccinate a total of 431,983 indigenous people against Covid-19; now, it is 408,232.

Source: G1