SAO PAULO (AP) – Brazilian state governors are making their own plans to stock up on vaccines, and some have expressed concern that the government of President Jair Bolsonaro is not delivering the necessary doses to avoid interrupting the campaign.
Governors are under pressure from mayors, some of whom have exhausted their vaccine supplies, including in three cities in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area. Salvador, capital of the state of Bahia, suspended vaccination on Thursday because it is starting to run low. Rio and Sao Paulo, the country’s two largest cities, are expected to run out of their vaccines in a few days.
The governor who has worked the most to increase the supply of vaccines in his state is São Paulo João Doria, a former ally of Bolsonaro and now his adversary. The president has repeatedly criticized Doria for purchasing 100 million CoronaVac vaccines from the Chinese company Sinovac and has said the federal government will not buy them.
Bolsonaro changed course in January due to the delay in the delivery of the only vaccine bought by his government and to see how other countries immunized their citizens while the 210 million Brazilians were waiting.
“If it weren’t for this vaccine (CoronaVac), Brazil would be a country without vaccines,” Doria said in an interview with The Associated Press. He added that he is negotiating the purchase of an additional 20 million doses and if the federal government does not buy them, he could sell them to other governors. “It is not up to a state government to ensure vaccines, but that’s how we are.”
The Bolsonaro government signed an agreement to acquire 100 million doses of AstraZeneca, but 2 million have arrived so far and more are expected in March, according to Fiocruz, the laboratory in Rio that will manufacture the injections in Brazil.
Last month, the Brazilian government contracted the purchase of 46 million CoronaVac vaccines from Sao Paulo, of which 10 million have been delivered so far.
Vaccines purchased by the federal government have been distributed throughout the country. Given that local authorities administer the injections, it is unclear how many people are immunized or which localities suffer from shortages.
With nearly 12 million doses available to date, 4.9 million people have received the injection, according to a Brazilian media consortium created last year to counter the lack of information on COVID-19.
The governor of Bahia, Rui Costa, also made his own plan and in September reached an agreement to buy the rights to 50 million doses of Russian Sputnik V. The Brazilian health authorities have not yet authorized it.
After ignoring the Costa agreement for months, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said on February 5 that the government will buy 10 million doses of Sputnik V. Recent studies express doubts about the efficacy of the vaccine acquired by the ministry to AstraZeneca to immunize against variants of the coronavirus.
One of these variants has been detected in Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas, whose health system was overwhelmed last month by the number of patients in desperate need of oxygen. The variant is less vulnerable to some treatments.
Pazuello said Tuesday in the Senate that the Brazilian variant is three times more contagious than the original virus, without going into details. He said he expects half the population to be vaccinated by June and the rest by the end of the year. Experts say that the country needs about 340 million doses for the entire population over 18 years of age. Vaccines licensed for emergency use have not yet been properly tested in adolescents and children.
Last year the government refused to buy 70 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Bolsonaro justified himself by saying that the Pfizer contract included a clause by which the company was exempted from any possible fault.
With the provision of vaccines by the federal government in doubt, Manaus state judge Etelvina Braga issued a ruling on Friday that gives the state of Amazonas and the city of Manaus 20 days to obtain a letter of intent with pharmaceutical companies for the purchase of vaccines. He observed that other states, such as Alagoas, one of the poorest in Brazil, already have those letters that are the first step to obtaining a contract.
Maranhao State Governor Flavio Dino, a strong critic of Bolsonaro, said the pandemic and difficulties in the vaccination campaign have given conservative and progressive governors a common cause. Most of the 27 governors backed the president in the 2018 election, he added, but those relations have deteriorated.
“The health crisis and the lack of dialogue with Bolsonaro have produced a rapprochement between the governors although they maintain deep ideological differences,” said Dino, a member of the opposition Communist Party. “He acts like he’s not in charge, so we see ourselves as the ones dealing with reality.”
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