Why is there no start date yet?

Brazil, one of the countries worst affected by the pandemic in the world, with an estimated 198,000 deaths and 7.8 million cases, still does not have a date for the start of its vaccination against the coronavirus, due to the laboratory backlog by recording their antidotes and by their own errors and discrepancies.

This delay leaves the second country with the most deaths by covid in the world (197,732) and the third with the most infections (7.8 million) behind the vaccination process, already launched by around fifty countries, including some Latin Americans like Argentina. , Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica.

Despite the fact that the government of Jair Bolsonaro has already presented a plan which foresees that the 210 million Brazilians will be vaccinated in 16 months, so far the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa, regulator) noor received a request for registration or authorization of vaccination.

The plan does not have a start date, but President Bolsonaro assures that his government has already released $ 4 billion for the purchase of antidotes and that vaccination will be started within five days of the approval of the first vaccine. . by Anvisa.

The expectation of the Ministry of Health is to start vaccination between January 20 and February 10, although it all comes down to registering a vaccine and how long it takes Anvisa to approve it.

To further complicate matters, this Wednesday Bolsonaro suspended the purchase of syringes necessary for vaccination, after a meeting with his Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello.

After the health ministry announced the purchase of syringes, their prices “skyrocketed”, which is why the purchase was “suspended until prices returned to normal,” wrote Wednesday the president on social media.

Last month, the Ministry of Health organized an auction for the purchase of more than 300 million syringes, but bought about 3 million because of the prices offered.

The official record

Anvisa admitted in a statement released Tuesday that she still had not received no requests from laboratories to use their covid vaccines in the country on a regular basis or for urgent reasons.

Of the 19 vaccines already announced or in final stages of development worldwide, eight have already been registered in different countries, three of them regularly, and six have already published the final results of their last phase of testing.

Pharmaceutical products, despite the fact that several massive testing of their products with volunteers in the country, have doubts about the registration process in Brazil and fear possible difficulties despite the fact that Anvisa announced a month ago the simplification of the rules.

The two vaccines which have advanced the most in this process are the one developed jointly by the laboratory AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford and that of the multinationals Pfizer and BioNtech, which have submitted partial results of their clinical trials to Anvisa.

After criticizing Anvisa’s demands, Pfizer admitted on Tuesday that it was negotiating with the Brazilian government to sell 70 million doses of the vaccine already in use in 32 countries. The government has yet to begin negotiations with Moderna, the world’s other most widely used vaccine.

Government preferences

One of the reasons for the delay in vaccination in Brazil was the government’s decision to bet almost all your chips on the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

Brasilia has entered into a technology transfer agreement with AstraZeneca since July to produce up to 100 million doses of its anticovid vaccine in the country and is expected to start manufacturing in 2020, but publication of the results of this antidote was delayed and thwarted Brazilian plans.

Although Brazil expects to receive in the coming days the raw material to start producing up to 15 million monthly doses of this vaccine from February, the hope in this antidote has prevented the government from negotiating in time. with other laboratories, such as the American Pfizer. and Moderna, whose immunizers have been shown to be superior, with an effectiveness of up to 95%.

Political battles

Another reason for the delay is the political differences that have caused a politicization of vaccination and place Bolsonaro and Joao Doria, governor of São Paulo, the most populous state in Brazil and the most affected by the pandemic, at opposite poles.

While Bolsonaro bet on the AstraZeneca vaccine, Doria closed an agreement with the Chinese laboratory Sinovac for the purchase of 46 million doses of its vaccine, of which 40 million will be produced in São Paulo by the Butantan Institute.

Amid the exchange of attacks between the two politicians – former allies and now rivals – who aspire to run in the presidential elections of 2022, the Butantan Institute intends to register the CoronaVac with Anvisa this week while the Foundation Oswaldo Cruz, who will produce the AstraZeneca vaccine in Brazil, believes he will do so next week.

Bolsonaro came to express doubts about the effectiveness of the Chinese vaccine and São Paulo’s plan to start vaccination on January 25, when he expects to have 18 million doses, which has raised suspicions about a eventual political interference to Anvisa to boycott Doria’s plans.

To speed up the vaccination process with AstraZeneca serum and while its production begins in Brazil, Anvisa authorized the import of two million doses on Monday of this antidote produced by the Indian Serum Institute laboratory and is expected to arrive in the country in mid-January.

Bolsonaro’s denial

Another reason for the delay in the vaccination campaign is the denial of the government of Bolsonaro, one of the leaders most skeptical of the severity of the pandemic and who has come to call the covid a “little flu”.

The far-right leader claims he will approve the use of vaccines only when the effectiveness and safety of the antidotes are fully proven and the laboratories are held responsible for the side effects of their products, which he says , drug companies refuse to accept.

The president even joked that no one would accept the vaccine if he told him that one of the side effects was turning into an alligator.

He also insists that the vaccine it will not be compulsory in the country; that he still does not know if it will be offered to those who have already contracted the disease because they already have defenses and that, personally, he will not take the antidote.

By Carlos A. Moreno, EFE agency

CB