:strip_icc()/i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_63b422c2caee4269b8b34177e8876b93/internal_photos/bs/2020/u/n/Hk8BqCQIWujRQfYiIf0w/foto18pol-101-pazuello-a11.jpg)
[ad_1]
In a letter to the Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, the National Council of Secretaries of Health (Conass) requested that the portfolio under his command be incorporated into the National Immunization Program (PNI) the covid-19 vaccine produced by Butantan Institute in partnership with the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac.
The request reflects the fear of politicization of the issue by secretaries, amid antagonism between the president. Jair bolsonaro and the governor of São Paulo, João Doria (PSDB), and the rejection of the most radical Bolsonarista base to the pejoratively called “Chinese vaccine of Doria”. This fear also occurs among the folder technicians heard by the Value, who fear politicization will contaminate the coronavirus vaccination ministry’s strategy.
In the letter, the secretaries report on a meeting that took place yesterday in which, “in accordance with the information provided by the Ministry of Health in the meeting with Conass, it was declared that the strategies already formalized by the Ministry with the vaccine AztraZeneca, and due to the Covax Facility initiative, must not make the vaccine available to the Brazilian population before April 2021 “.
Later, Conass reflects that at the same meeting the São Paulo State Department of Health reported that the vaccine produced by the Butantan Institute is ending phase III at the beginning of November.
Also according to Conass, in December there will be “the immediate availability of 46 million doses, with 14 million additional doses until February and, in 2021, another 40 million until June, totaling a possible 100 million doses.”
On this occasion, Conass cordially requests the Ministry of Health to adopt the necessary and immediate measures to incorporate into the PNI the vaccines for covid-19 produced by the Butantan Institute, in alliance with the pharmaceutical company Sinovac Life Science, as well as that of any another vaccine produced and tested by other industries, which have conditions of efficacy, safety and production available to start the vaccination of the Brazilian population in January 2021, or in the shortest possible time ”, says the letter.
In the document, the secretaries also affirm that “the assertive confrontation with the covid-19 pandemic, which has already evolved with more than 150 thousand deaths in Brazil, requires the maximum haste and speed in the acquisition and availability of vaccines to the nation “.
“In effect, the moment requires that the Ministry of Health command national unity around the rapid, safe and timely availability of the vaccines already available, especially those produced by subnational initiatives,” says Conass.
The Ministry of Health has yet to comment. A source close to Minister Eduardo Pazuello told the Valuehowever, that the choice will be made based on technical criteria, that there will be no discrimination and that any vaccine that is shown to work will be acquired by the SUS.
