More than three hundred Brazilians accumulated on Sao Paulo’s main advertising route on Sunday to verify that they opposed the state governor, Joo Doria, for mandatory vaccination against Covid-19 and for the control of CoronaVac, the prospective vaccine developed through China’s Sinovac laboratory. .
Doria has already spoken out in favor of making vaccines mandatory once vaccines become available, prompting a dispute with President Jair Bolsonaro, who promised she will volunteer. The president of the Supreme Court said the court would eventually settle the matter.
Several vaccines are mandatory in Brazil, adding, for example, hepatitis B that is given to newborns. Brazil has had great luck with primary vaccination campaigns in the past, eliminating polio in the 1980s, for example.
In Sao Paulo, the CoronaVac vaccine is being tested in phase III clinical trials with the Doria government.
Brazil’s Ministry of Fitness announced last month that it would purchase 46 million doses of the vaccine, subject to regulatory approval, as part of an agreement subsidized by state governors, but a day later, President Jair Bolsonaro said Brazil would buy the vaccine.
Bolsonaro has been intermittently criticizing China since the 2018 electoral crusade for the investment and influence of Asian countries in Brazil.
Protesters in Sao Paulo piled up in Bolsonaro, with a protester holding a banner that read “We’re not guinea pigs” and others dressed in a mask that read “No vaccine. “Many of the tight protesters were not dressed in masks.
“We oppose Authoritarian Chinese Ambassador Joo Doria, who would now make the vaccine against our will mandatory,” protester Andre Petros said. “This doesn’t happen anywhere in the world, not even in China. “
Brazil has the third largest coronavirus outbreak in the world, with 5. 5 million cases, after the United States and India.
Federal participation
Bolsonaro announced on October 21 that the federal government would purchase the CoronaVac vaccine, which is being developed through the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac in partnership with the Butantan Institute, which is owned by the state government of Sao Paulo.
Before being made available to the public, the president said, the vaccine must be “scientifically tested” through the Ministry of Health and qualified through national fitness regulator Anvisa.
“The other Brazilian people will not be anyone’s guinea pig. A multimillion-dollar monetary investment in a drug that has not even finished its testing phase is justified,” Bolsonaro wrote on social media.
Following an online assembly with the governors, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello signed a protocol of intent to win 46 million doses of CoronaVac, with the aim of expanding the supply of vaccines for Brazilians, for which the federal government would allocate budget allocations totaling US$340. 3 million.
According to the ministry, the procurement procedure will not be completed until it announces and registers the vaccine. To help with the production of the vaccine, the ministry had already revealed US$14. 3 million as an investment in the expansion of Butantan’s structure.
Elcio Franco, executive secretary of the Ministry of Health, reported that “there is a challenge in interpreting the words of the Minister of Health” and that there is no commitment to the Government of the State of Sao Paulo regarding the acquisition of the vaccine opposed to COVID-19.
“It is a non-binding memorandum of intent between the Ministry of Health and the Butantan Institute, as it considers the Ministry of Health’s principal spouse in the production of vaccines for the National Immunization Program [NIP]. “
Franco noted that “this is another attempt to provide an effective vaccine for our people, in this case as a Brazilian vaccine,” and if it’s going to be had before AztraZeneca/Oxford or Covax,” he said.
The Secretary that any vaccine is pending technical evaluation and approval through Anvisa, the Chamber of Regulation of the Drug Market (CMED) and the National Commission for incorporation of Technology (Conitec) of the Single National Health System (SUS) of Brazil.
He recalled that any vaccine available, qualified through Anvisa and acquired through the Ministry of Health, will be presented to Brazilians under the initiative of the PNI, and “for this ministry will be mandatory”.
CoronaVac is in phase 3 human testing and, according to the Butantan Institute, is a vaccine; in other words, it shows no serious side effects. In total, the tests will be carried out with 13,000 volunteers and deserve to be completed until December.
If the last level of testing the effectiveness of the vaccine, the agreement between Sinovac and Butantan includes the generation movement for the production of the vaccine in Brazil, which will be administered in two doses consistent with the child.
MP/ABr