Eighty-nine Percent of Brazilians Want Covid-19 Vaccination, When Available

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Amid trials and a race to produce vaccines against the novel coronavirus, nine out of ten Brazilians say they intend to be immunized as soon as the product is available.

According to a Datafolha survey, conducted between August 11th and 12th, nine percent of respondents said they would not take a vaccine manufactured to prevent the disease – 89 percent said they would and three percent were unable to express an opinion. The error margin is two percentage points plus or minus.

The survey was conducted in all regions of the country and interviewed 2,065 adult Brazilians by phone (in order to avoid personal contact between researchers and respondents).

There are currently over one hundred projects underway to produce vaccines against Covid-19 in the world. At least 29 of these are in trials, with six in what is known as phase 3, the last stage before approval.

The percentage of the population who say they intend to get the vaccine is stable among different age, gender, income, and schooling groups, according to Datafolha. The greatest variation, with the smallest percentage saying they want to take the vaccine, is among the strata of people who say they do not wear a mask, live without any kind of isolation, and are not afraid of being infected.

According to Datafolha, the majority of Brazilians, 46 percent, believe there will be a vaccine against Covid-19 in the first half of 2021. Another 25 percent believe the product will be ready in 2020, 22 percent say it will be ready by the end of 2021, and five percent say they do not know.

In Brazil, there are agreements with three research fronts for vaccine production. The federal government, through Fiocruz, has signed a partnership with Oxford University and AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company. The state of São Paulo, through the Butantan, has signed an agreement with the Chinese laboratory Sinovac to test and produce the vaccine on a large scale.

The government of Paraná State announced on Tuesday, August 11rh, that it has an agreement with Russia, which on the same day became the first country to announce the approval of a vaccine against the disease that has killed more than 700,000 people worldwide. However, the project of the Moscow-based Gamaleya laboratory is viewed with suspicion by the international scientific community for not having had studies results with adequate scientific criteria published.

In general, vaccines use weakened viruses or bacteria or parts of them in an attempt to “teach” the immune system to recognize the pathogen; thus, when someone comes into contact with it, they either do not develop the disease or develop a milder form of it.

These need to undergo three clinical trial phases in humans. The Russian vaccine, christened Sputnik V, is in phase 2, with clinical trials in progress. Despite this, authorities in the country have decided to register the drug so that it can be used for mass immunization between August and October.

In Brazil, trials are being conducted for two vaccines, the Oxford vaccine and the one from China’s Sinovac laboratory. In partnership with the Butantan Institute, the Chinese project is conducting clinical trials in six states, with 9,000 volunteers in 12 research centers. The state government has already signed up 15 million doses and, according to Butantan director Dimas Tadeu Covas, it plans to begin vaccination in January 2021.

The vaccine depends on positive efficacy and safety results to secure its registration with ANVISA (National Health Regulatory Agency). In China, it is being produced and awaits emergency use authorization.

Since June, volunteers in Brazil – 2,000 in São Paulo, 2,000 in Rio and 1,000 in Salvador – are testing the Oxford vaccine. According to the World Health Organization, the UK product is the most advanced so far in the race for immunization. The federal government has released R$1.9 billion for the project, which secures 100 million doses of the vaccine for Brazil.

Worldwide, there are groups challenging the use of vaccines. They discredit their effect and claim there are side effects to their use.

A survey commissioned by ABC television network and the Washington Post newspaper in the United States showed that 27 percent of the country’s citizens responded that they would either certainly or most likely not take a vaccine against the novel coronavirus if it were available and offered for free.

The US is the worst affected country by the pandemic, with over five million people infected and approximately 170,000 deaths.

Meanwhile, in Germany, 61 percent said they would use the product against the novel coronavirus, according to the University of Hamburg.

“The anti-vaccine movement in Brazil is still in its infancy and has not progressed,” Butantan director Dimas Tadeu Covas said. “What we have here is a careless attitude towards the vaccine, which is a little different. This was the case with the resurgence of measles.”

In recent years, the Ministry of Health has failed to achieve its vaccination goal. The prevalence of locations with low vaccination coverage is pointed out as the main factor for the return of measles in the country, which occurred in 2018.

The interviews were conducted over the phone because of the pandemic. The survey, used in this study, represents Brazil’s total adult population.

Thus, despite the sample distribution according to sex and age quotas within each macro-region, and its subsequent consideration according to schooling, the data should be analyzed with some caution for limiting the use of such tools.

In the survey, conducted so as to avoid personal contact between researchers and respondents, Datafolha followed the required technical guidelines so that results are as close as possible to the universe they intend to represent.

Source: Folhapress