Brazilian Health Secretaries Urge Federal Government to Purchase All Covid-19 Vaccines

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – State and Municipal Health Secretaries called on the federal government to include all covid-19 vaccines “with proven efficacy and safety” in the National Immunization Program (NIP).

The request is contained in a joint note published on Saturday by the National Council of Health Secretaries (CONASS) and the National Council of Municipal Health Secretaries (CONASEMS).

The Secretaries argue that the worsening pandemic worldwide should increase demand and cause dose shortages, “leading to restrictions on the number of suppliers resulting in delays in access to a vaccine for priority risk groups.”

The councils also stressed the urgency of immunizing the entire Brazilian population and advocated that the Ministry of Health, in charge of the NIP, should focus and coordinate decisions on the purchase of vaccines and raw materials, logistics, strategy, monitoring and evaluation of the campaign, in order to ensure equality in care.

“The lack of national coordination, the potential adoption of different timetables and priority groups for vaccination in the various states, are worrisome because they would generate iniquity among citizens of the federation units, as well as hinder national communication actions and the organization of pharmacovigilance, which will be crucial for a new vaccine,” says the note.

“Brazilian society demands that the decisions on vaccination against Covid-19 are not guided by issues unrelated to the interests of the country.”

This week, the Ministry of Health reported that it intends to begin the vaccination program against Covid-19 in March and, according to Minister Eduardo Pazuello, none of the vaccines currently being tested is ruled out.

Brazil has currently guaranteed 142.9 million doses of vaccines against Covid-19 through the Fiocruz/AstraZeneca (100.4 million) and Covax Facility (42.5 million) agreements, the first of which should be administerted to health professionals, some elderly and indigenous people.

In parallel, São Paulo Governor João Doria said that irrespective of the NIP schedule, the state population will begin to be immunized against the coronavirus in January, after the approval of the results of the Coronavac vaccine produced by the Butantan Institute in partnership with the Chinese laboratory Sinovac.

Source: Valor Econômico