Court fairs are quiet. The lawyers that populate the courts practically disappear and only urgent situations are attended to, which at the same time are minimal. This maxim was not fulfilled in the corridors of the Contentious-Administrative Court, where a case of national importance not only involved long hearings but also caused the small venue to become a gorge of anti-vaccine exponents and journalists eager to get hold of the material of the process. . Even so, the suspension of vaccination of minors afflicts the judicial operators of the 4th Shift and the national government, but the case has at least one more week to live and it is still not clear which three judges will be responsible for take a final decision to settle this issue.
The government responded to the appeal on Tuesday and, according to what was reported in Search, emphasized that Judge Alejandro Recarey acted “partially” and reiterated the scientific credentials of the decision to vaccinate minors. After that, the opposing lawyer, Maximiliano Dentone, has another three business days to respond to the government’s arguments and advocate for the ratification of the ruling. These three days expire on Friday.
On the next business day – which will be Tuesday, since Monday is a non-working holiday – the 4th Administrative Litigation Judge Turn (Recarey was a substitute), Carlos Aguirre, must submit it to the Court of Appeals. There are seven shifts and there is no way to predict in advance which one it will be. At the time that Aguirre raises it, it will be drawn and it will be known which collegiate of three judges will make the final decision.
Starting Tuesday, they will have a maximum of four days, that is, until Friday, to fail. Meanwhile, coordination between anti-covid-19 vaccine groups continues. “I wanted to see the scientific arguments, to see if we can help,” said anti-vaccine doctor Javier Sciuto, when asked what brought him to court. Like the rest of the applicants, he was denied access to the file.
Pediatric infectologist Álvaro Galiana warned that “if the suspension of vaccination lasts for several weeks it can be a problem.” Because although immunization plans are estimates —and it is not that every body should receive the corresponding doses on the exact day—, the passage of time “can leave many children unprotected.” In that sense, he explained: “If the stoppage is for one or two weeks, as it has been up to now, a serious problem should not be generated except for a specific case… it is different if this is extended.”
How many children were left unvaccinated?
As vaccination against covid-19 is not mandatory and, for three weeks, it has not been required to schedule, any estimate lacks evidence. But the historical march of the administration of the doses to children gives some clues.
On Thursday the 7th, the day that Judge Alejandro Recarey suspended vaccination in children under 13 years of age until the vaccine purchase contracts are made public, there were 725 children between the ages of five and 11 who were authorized to give themselves their second dose. However, in the few hours of that Thursday in which the vaccination clinics worked, until the magistrate decreed the interruption, only 313 of those children had been vaccinated.
The Secretary of the Presidency, Álvaro Delgado, said at a press conference that day that 5,800 children between the ages of 5 and 13 were eligible for a second dose.
In the days that followed, the number of children who had already missed the six-week window after the first dose and were waiting to take the second grew. So much so that yesterday, a week after the suspension of the vaccination campaign, another 1,936 children joined (totaling 2,661). And if the legal time that may take until the appeals court rules is taken into account, another 693 would be added in the same situation.
These calculations do not take into account the chances that a child will be infected with covid-19 in the window period and, therefore, must wait three months to receive their second dose. Nor does he consider that there are some 1,500 children who are currently reaching the minimum age to be vaccinated (five years old) and may be interested in doing so. Nor does it take those adolescents of 12 and 13 years of age whose vaccination was also suspended (age at which the vaccination schedule is three doses and the fourth is enabled for the population at risk). And, above all, it does not consider those who have never received a single dose and want to do it for the first time.
Galiana insisted that covid-19 is an infection that also affects children. As an example: at the Pereira Rossell pediatric hospital, which he directs, there are six children hospitalized with a positive diagnosis of the presence of the virus. Some of them are under five years old, the minimum age for which anticovid vaccination was enabled in Uruguay.
Brazil approved this week the administration of Coronavac doses for children between three and five years of age with the aim of also protecting that population. This occurs in the midst of a growth in the circulation of respiratory viruses.
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