consolidates itself as one of the countries that have vaccinated the most

Courtesy of Sinovac vaccine for over 6s, the neighboring country will start immunizing children in two weeks. How did you make him move forward with so much giddiness? The keys.

On Monday afternoon, the director of the Institute of Public Health of Chile, Heriberto García, walked visibly happy to face the media microphones. The expert committee of the trans-Andean regulatory agency had authorized, after analysis of the data presented by Sinovac for children between 3 and 17 years old, its emergency use in people over 6 years of age.

In the opinion of the authority, from this age “the existing data guarantee a good answer immunized against the vaccine, moreover, this group is considered to be the most mobile at school, so vaccination is particularly beneficial to them, also taking into account the scenario of the appearance of new variants ”.

Hours later, Health Under-Secretary Paula Daza set dates: schoolchildren will start getting vaccinated in schools in the next 15 days, probably after the country’s national holidays.

But why this southern country, with a per capita income similar to Argentina, has been installed at the forefront of the vaccination process, surpassing the world powers?

The importance of credibility

Despite Chile’s bad political moment, ignoring its economic and institutional developments over the past 40 years would be a short-sighted exercise. The Chileans are totally immersed in world trade (they hold the record of economy with the most number of free trade agreements) and its institutions enjoy credibility abroad.

Thus, in May 2020, sitting at table with various laboratories to negotiate contracts. They didn’t demand glaciers or guarantees, nor did he agree to relinquish his sovereignty – which is why he ultimately gave up the contract with Janssen – the only thing he offered in return. was its payment history in time and form and the possibility of associating their study houses with clinical trial laboratories.

Towards the end of last year I already had contracts with Pfizer, Astra Zeneca, Sinovac and a pre-contract with Janssen. With all of them he came from the first. With all of them, the first agreements were signed at the end of the first half of that year, barely 6 months after the declaration of the pandemic.

On December 24, the first Pfizer vaccines landed. Then Sinovac did it. By March, they had received 8,650,000 doses for a population of 18 million inhabitants.

Today, they already have 35,713,044 doses, and began to inoculate the third dose to prevent an outbreak of Delta. This last measure has been clarified by the studies which have been carried out with combined doses in its territory.

The role of universities

The main study houses in the country aligned with the Ministry of Science to accommodate Phase III studies from the various laboratories. It is at the Catholic University that the greatest cooperative relationship between this institution and Sinovac has been established.

The phase III study of Coronovac, from this Chinese laboratory, which was carried out in Chile, was used for its authorization by the WHO.

For the Asian laboratory, the role of the neighboring country was essential to its global expansion, which is why they chose Santiago and Antofagasta as research and development bases for all of Latin America. They will produce 60 million vaccines per year, to fight against different diseases.

And it is in the Catholic, precisely, where the study takes place in children and adolescents, which has already reached a sufficient sample size – combined with the results provided by China – to allow its use in people over 6 years of age. Regarding minors between 3 and 6 years old, there should be news next month.

To these efforts is added that of various scientific companies and medical teams which have carried out trials of combined regimens and even clinical trials on massive concerts without reducing the capacity of people at the two doses. All aligned behind the vaccination policy.

The Chinese vaccine made

If there is a country close to the liberal economies of the first world, in Latin America, it is Chile. But the right-wing government of Sebastián Piñera, decided not to play the geopolitical game and negotiated with everyone. Piñera, a successful entrepreneur in companies like LAN (now Latam), bet on diversifying risk and not marrying just a few suppliers.

Thus, in its vaccine portfolio, there are Belgians, Germans, North Americans, Chinese, Russians and Canadians. And while Sinovac does not have the best efficacy in controlling disease, the guarantee to deliver vaccines by the millions made the bet of the Chilean government that the cases would not be reduced by the effectiveness of the vaccine, but by mass vaccination, making it reach every corner. This is how it happened.

With more than 13.5 million vaccinated and 90.03% of the population goal with at least one dose (85% with two), they did not need a very effective vaccine, but a traditional vaccine, which exceeds 50%, which is the standard required by the WHO for any disease , in order to control the virus.

Today Chile has approximately 3,500 active cases, new infections do not exceed 500 per day and yesterday reported deaths were reduced to 17. The vilified Chinese vaccine, mixed with nearly 5 million Chileans who received Pfizer, Cansino and Astra Zeneca, met its target.

With vaccination in schools, which will begin in the coming days, Chile will maintain its place on the podium of the countries having vaccinated the fastest. They will be the first with children, thanks to their credibility, ability to pay, the effort of its universities and, why not, a president who, like a good businessman, risks resounding failures in his bets or – like the minors – exceptional achievements.

PB