RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil was left out of the first batch of vaccines delivered by Covax, the global alliance created to guarantee the distribution of doses to developing countries. This week, the organization announced that supply to the American continent began with Colombia, with the Pfizer/BioNTech’s immunizer.
In the coming days, the same vaccines will reach Peru, El Salvador and Bolivia. The Pfizer/BioNTech doses will be delivered to a total of 18 countries in the Americas. But Brazil is not part of this group, and, at least for now, there is no known date for the immunizers to reach the country. The alliance guarantees that the doses will be delivered in March.
According to Seth Berkley, executive of GAVI (vaccine fund), Pfizer has made specific demands for governments to take legal responsibility for the doses and has also established criteria for the preparation of countries.
One of the arguments used to justify the priority supply to these countries is the absence of bilateral agreements between these governments and pharmaceutical companies, particularly the poorest ones.
But sources in Brasília stated that Brazil still needs to complete “bureaucratic procedures” to enable the purchase of doses. It was only on Monday that President Jair Bolsonaro considered the provisional measure authorizing Brazil to join the Covax. The measure was processed in the Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies, where it was subject to amendments.
Covax will send AstraZeneca vaccines to Brazil, and the organization guarantees that “in the coming weeks” all 36 countries in the region will receive the drugs.
9.1 million doses by late May
However, the amount allocated to Brazil will be much lower than what the government announced in February. At the time, the Ministry of Health stated that it would receive between 10 million and 14 million doses. But the figures were only preliminary projections. On Friday, the vaccine alliance confirmed that it will allocate only 9.1 million doses in the first half of the year.
A further 2.9 million will be delivered in March, but the date has not yet been set. The country will receive the remaining 42 million doses it requested for the second semester.
In the case of Colombia, 117,000 doses from Pfizer/BioNTech will begin to be administered this week. By the end of the year, the country expects to receive 20 million doses from Covax.
With 50 million reported cases and 1.2 million deaths, countries in the Americas will need to immunize 700 million people to control the pandemic.
Largest vaccination campaign in history
Globally, the alliance’s first distributions through May will enable 237 million doses to reach 142 countries. Pakistan (14.6 million doses), Nigeria (13.6 million), Indonesia (11.7 million) and Bangladesh (10.9 million) will receive larger amounts than Brazil.
According to the WHO’s executive director, Tedros Ghebreyesus, the alliance will distribute a total of 11 million doses this week, including to Cambodia, Angola, and Nigeria. Even governments in wealthier countries, such as South Korea, have also received Pfizer doses.
Berkley pointed out that plans are targeting 2.3 billion doses in the poorest countries by the end of 2021. “This is the largest vaccination campaign in history,” he said.
But the alliance’s challenges persist. German Minister Maria Flachsbarth insists that the facility still needs US$22 billion this year and warns that the speeding up vaccination is the only way to prevent virus mutations from occurring. “To reach that volume, we need to have more donors,” she pointed out.
Source: UOL