Experts criticize Brazilian cities vaccinating teenagers before priority groups

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Betim (MG) and Cacoal (RO) this week began using Pfizer doses to immunize people over 12 years of age; The measure is not recommended by the Ministry of Health and is considered a “mistake” and “waste” by doctors.

Contrary to the Ministry of Health’s guidelines, which recommends vaccination only for people over 18, at least two cities this week began immunizing teenagers. Betim, in Minas Gerais, on Wednesday began vaccinating students. On Monday, Cacoal, in Rondônia, started the immunization of teenagers with comorbidities.

In both cities, the vaccine used was Pfizer’s. On June 11, the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA) authorized the administration of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for people over 12 years of age.

However, the Ministry of Health said that extending vaccination to adolescents over 12 “is still under discussion” in the Technical Advisory Chamber on Immunization and Transmissible Diseases and that “the focus is to vaccinate all priority groups as stipulated in the National Operationalization Plan for Vaccination against Covid-19 and immunize the entire population over 18 years of age,” which has not yet been done either in Betim or Cacoal. The Minas Gerais city is currently vaccinating people aged 59, and Cacoal, aged between 53 and 57.

The Ministry stressed that “the advice is for states and municipalities to follow what is recommended by the Ministry of Health. However, local SUS managers are free to follow their own vaccination strategy.”

According to infectologist Renato Kfouri, from the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics’ (SBP) Department of Immunization, the measure does not make sense, “because these groups are rarely affected by the severe forms of the disease.”

“Rarely will a child or adolescent be hospitalized or die. Prioritizing this group that transmits (the virus) and hardly gets sick is a mistake when there are more important groups to be vaccinated,” Kfouri says.

Epidemiologist Carla Domingues, coordinator of the National Immunization Program between 2011 and 2019, believes that administering vaccines to this group is a waste.

“This is wasting doses. These vaccines are being distributed to immunize groups with comorbidities, the population over 50 years of age, which is in fact at higher risk of falling ill, developing complications, and dying. Not even this group (in Betim) has been completed and they are going to vaccinate teenagers, at a lower risk,” the expert said. “Chaos is widespread. There are no criteria, each one doing what they want.”

School resumption

In Betim, students from the municipal network aged between 12 and 14 are being vaccinated. Some 19,000 sudents are expected to be immunized. During the week, the city hall will open a register for state and private institutions to enroll their respective students. Mayor Vittorio Medioli (PSD) said that this is “another step in the planning to restart classes” after vaccinating teachers:

“We have already lost the 2020 school year and we must make an effort to recover and not lose this year too. Therefore, the Pfizer vaccine to be delivered to the city will be intended for students. We will start with the most distant and neediest areas of the city. With the teachers and students vaccinated with the first dose, we will be able to assess the conditions to restart classes (semi-attendance classes) in August”, Medioli stated in a note.

Housewife Marilene Pereira, 33, and her daughter Isabella dos Santos, 12, were the first in line at the Jorge Afonso Defensor Municipal School, in Betim. “I came in early (in line) because I think it’s important. She will be the first in the family. My turn hasn’t even come yet, but I’m very grateful that her time has come,” Marilene Pereira said.

In Cacoal, on Monday, 350 teenagers with comorbidities, chronic diseases or psychomotor disabilities were immunized. Mayor Adailton Furia (PSD) said he decided on immunization because “although not waiting for the formal and bureaucratic steps of the Ministry of Health, he understands that the mothers and fathers of these children are in a hurry to see them immunized and less susceptible to this disease.”

In a statement, he “assured that the Federal Constitution authorizes him, as mayor, to make important decisions in people’s lives” and that he “exercised the principle of ‘absolute priority’ for our children, adolescents and youths.”

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