Brazil finally launched its national vaccination campaign against the coronavirus on Monday, and two days ahead of schedule after being polite by the governor of Sao Paulo.
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The country of 212 million people, the second most bereaved by COVID-19, has only six million doses to kick off the vaccination. And this national campaign starts late due to political battles, several weeks after other major epidemic centers such as the United States or Europe.
The logistical challenge is sizeable in this nation of continental dimensions where more than 210,000 Brazilians have officially died from the coronavirus – a figure greatly underestimated, according to specialists.
It was only on Sunday that the situation was unblocked, when the Brazilian regulator Anvisa approved the emergency use of two first vaccines, the Chinese CoronaVac and the British Oxford / AstraZeneca.
“After hearing the governors, we decided to distribute the vaccines today to the (27) states” of the Brazilian federation, which “can begin to vaccinate” immediately, Minister of Health Eduardo Pazuello announced on Monday.
The minister was speaking after meeting with governors at Guarulhos airport, near Sao Paulo (south-east), from where 4.5 million doses of CoronaVac began to leave for the various regions of the country, 1.5 million remaining being intended for the population of the State of Sao Paulo.
In Rio de Janeiro (south-east), one of the states most affected by the pandemic, the first vaccinations were initially scheduled for 5 p.m. (8 p.m. GMT), near the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue which dominates the city.
But the ceremony could not start on time, the doses having arrived four hours late at Santos Dumont airport. Other states have reported similar logistical issues.
In the northern state of Amazonas, hit hard by the second wave of the pandemic and where the capital, Manaus, has deplored deaths due to a lack of oxygen in hospitals, the doses were expected Monday evening for a start of vaccinations on Tuesday.
“Historic moment”
“This is Brazil’s vaccine, not that of any governor,” President Jair Bolsonaro said from Brasilia.
A radical change of tone for the far-right leader, who had previously repeatedly decried “the Chinese vaccine of Joao Doria”, the governor of the state of Sao Paulo.
Mr Bolsonaro’s potential rival for the 2022 presidential election, Mr Doria rushed to organize an official ceremony, in front of the cameras, for the first vaccination in Brazil in his state on Sunday, shortly after the approval of CoronaVac by the ‘Anvisa.
“A marketing stunt,” responded the Minister of Health, indicating that the national vaccination campaign would officially begin on Wednesday. Before finally moving it forward to Monday, under pressure.
CoronaVac, produced by the Chinese firm Sinovac in collaboration with the Butantan Institute, placed under the supervision of the State of Sao Paulo, is the only vaccine available for the moment in Brazil.
More than a hundred people were vaccinated in Sao Paulo as of Sunday and local authorities hope to exceed the thousand injections on Monday.
“This is a historic moment. I have been on the front line from the start, so I am very happy to be vaccinated, ”said Cilede Lira, a nurse who received a dose of CoronaVac on Monday morning in Sao Paulo.
Export difficulties
The Butantan institute on Monday filed with Anvisa a request for emergency use of 4.8 million additional doses that require another authorization because they were bottled in Brazil.
For Christovam Barcellos, researcher at the Fiocruz benchmark institute, vaccination in Brazil “starts late and with an insufficient number of doses”.
According to him, Brazil has more than 16 million people supposed to be vaccinated as a priority (healthcare workers, the elderly living in retirement homes and the indigenous population), far more than the number of doses available.
The government tried to negotiate the import from India of two million doses of the second vaccine authorized on Sunday by Anvisa, that of the British AstraZeneca / Oxford. Those doses were due to arrive from India last weekend, but the Indian government, which started a massive campaign on Saturday, has yet to give the green light.