Analysis: Brazil’s vaccination pace after 150 days far slower than US, UK, Israel

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Five months into its vaccination plan, Brazil has immunized 11% of its population with two doses, while the United States has achieved 36%.

Last week, Brazil reached 150 days of vaccine administration against Covid-19. By Wednesday, June 16, when this cycle was completed, the country had 11% of Brazilians fully immunized with two doses of antigens against the coronavirus. On Wednesday, June 23, it reached 11.9%.

Although the total number of doses is impressive – on that day around 83 million vaccines were administered – Brazil’s average is far below what has been seen in other countries that have embraced immunization against the disease as their main task to emerge from the pandemic.

On its 150th day, the United States had 36% of its population fully immunized, three times more than Brazil, the UK 31%, and Israel 59%. The international data was collected from the Our World in Data website, linked to Oxford University.

Countries that pursued the goal of vaccinating a lot and fast are now leveraging the gains of their celerity, relaxing the use of masks, allowing events, movement of people, albeit not fully abandoning caution, it should be noted.

The town of Serrana, 313 kilometers north of the state capital São Paulo, is a shining example of how to encourage mass vaccination. Through a study controlled by the Butantan Institute, 95% of its adult population were administered both doses of the CoronaVac, from Chinese Sinovac in partnership with the Butantan Institute, widely used in Brazil.

According to specialists, once an average of 75% fully vaccinated adults is achieved, the pandemic can be controlled.

The data from Serrana are impressive: 80% reduction in symptomatic cases, 86% fewer hospitalizations, and deaths plummeted by 95%. “It has been proven that we can control the ongoing pandemic as long as vaccination is accelerated,” says Ricardo Palacios, medical director of clinical research at the Butantan.

“If vaccination is slow, you push the high-circulation virus toward the younger age groups that are susceptible to infection. When you vaccinate quickly, the circulation of the disease is compromised, and so you can reduce the virus range for everyone, even among those who are not vaccinated.”