Since the start of the epidemic and while Brazil is the second most bereaved country with nearly 280,000 dead, the attitude of President Jair Bolsonaro has been more of a waltz-hesitation than an accelerated rhythm of samba to fight against the coronavirus. But under pressure because of his chaotic management of the health crisis, the Head of State now seems to have changed the discourse on vaccination by admitting that it is essential for economic activity to fully resume in this country of 212 millions of inhabitants.
With hospitals on the verge of saturation in most states and more than 2,000 daily deaths last week, Jair Bolsonaro has once again changed Minister of Health, in the midst of a health crisis. He will replace Eduardo Pazuello, who had just announced the order for 138 million doses to speed up a vaccination campaign that was still too slow. It is true that Eduardo Pazuello is a soldier with the rank of general and that his medical experience was rather limited. But he was appointed in May 2020 when oncologist Nelson Teich resigned less than a month after his appointment for opposing, like his predecessor Luiz Henrique Mandetta, the drugs recommended by Jair Bolsonaro to treat the virus.
This time, Marcelo Queiroga is more aware of the problems. The president of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology (SBC) will have to set to music the “aggressive” offensive that the country wants to implement with a vast vaccination campaign.
Less than 5% of Brazilians received a first dose
In the country, vaccination did not start until mid-January with only the AstraZeneca and CoronaVac vaccines, from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac. Some 9.8 million people received the first dose, or about 4.6% of the population, and 3.6 million only the second.
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The country has just ordered more than 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine which are expected to be delivered by September. Brazil will also benefit from 38 million doses of the Janssen vaccine, from the American pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson in the second half of the year. Brazil’s orders now cover a total of 563 million doses purchased from several laboratories. And negotiations are continuing for the acquisition of 13 million doses from the American laboratory Moderna.
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As in other countries, there is still uncertainty about this vaccination program. More than a third of the doses are AstraZeneca vaccines whose injections have been suspended by several European countries in recent days, due to fears, never confirmed, linked to blood clots. However, the Anvisa agency should still issue its final authorization, as of Friday, for this vaccine which will then be produced locally by the Fiocruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro.
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