The Covid-19 vaccine should not be offered to the entire population in 2021, says the Ministry of Health | Vaccine

“We set goals [com grupos prioritários] for vaccination, because we do not have a vaccine to vaccinate the entire Brazilian population. Furthermore, the studies do not foresee working initially with all age groups, so we could not even vaccinate the entire Brazilian population, ”Francieli said.

Executive Secretary Elcio Franco also cited the limitations of global production. “When we talk about immunization, the world does not understand that there will be a vaccine for everyone. The Covax Facility itself, an initiative that brings together a series of laboratories, seeks access to 2,000 million doses to vaccinate the world, and from there we see that it is a very ambitious goal because we do not imagine that there will be a vaccine to vaccinate all citizens. of planet Earth “.

Regarding the vaccination plan in the country, the executive secretary said that the portfolio is following the development of vaccines at a more advanced stage. “We are talking with the laboratories and following the studies. That way we will design vaccination in the country.”

“Both in Brazil and in all countries, immunizers, vaccines are being studied. No vaccine is registered in any health agency in the world ”, added the executive secretary.

Four laboratories are testing in Brazil: Sinovac, Oxford and AstraZeneca, Janssen and BioNTech / Pfizer. The first two already have some agreement to supply doses. The government of Paraná signed an agreement with Sputnik V, of Russia, for a partnership in development.

This Friday, Anvisa received the request to evaluate studies of the Janssen vaccine. The lab is the fourth to send the data to the agency. None have yet applied for the vaccine registration.

Testing is not a requirement to treat Covid

Executive Secretary Elcio Franco said testing is not a requirement for Covid-19 patients to receive treatment.

Franco also affirmed that the lethality of the disease caused by the new coronavirus fell in Brazil after the arrival of Eduardo Pazuello at the head of the ministry.

The statement comes at a time when the Ministry of Health is criticized by experts for handling the pandemic that led to:

• 7 million tests run the risk of not being used, since they are about to expire and now need Anvisa’s approval to extend their validity;
• Defense of the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, although the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that the drug was not effective against the disease;
• Exclusion of post in social networks of the Ministry of Health with the statement: “There are no specific vaccines, foods, substances or remedies to prevent or end Covid-19.“;
• Drop in the total number of tests carried out, an item considered essential for the follow-up and contact isolation of Covid patients.

During a press conference, Elcio Franco did not address the importance of conducting Covid molecular diagnostic tests to trace contacts and isolate confirmed cases. Experts warn that testing is essential to track and stop the progress of the pandemic.

“The test will be carried out at the request of the doctor. We emphasize that the doctor will be able to make the physical clinical diagnosis. (…) It is not a requirement that the patient necessarily undergo the test,” said the secretary.

The cardiologist and researcher at the University Hospital of USP, Marcio Bittencourt, says that the test is not a mandatory requirement, but it is “highly recommended.”

“It is not a mandatory requirement, but it is highly recommended. I can even make a clinical-epidemiological diagnosis or by tomography when I do not have the test. It is a game changer. I can make many more mistakes. Many more tests than I have”, He says.

Bittencourt also recalls that WHO recommends a positive test rate of around 5% so that the spread of the disease is considered controlled. In Brazil, this rate is 30% (the positivity rate represents the percentage of positive cases in relation to the number of tests performed).

“ME [a taxa de positividade] it was never below 20% in a week. Our positive positivity is that we taste little, and when we taste little, the positivity is high. You have to test 5 to 10 times more than we test to reach 5% “says the USP doctor.

The ministry secretary’s statement on the possibility that doctors adopt behaviors regardless of the confirmation of the diagnosis by the laboratory was made after he affirmed that there are “surpluses” of tests already distributed to the states.

The statement was made in a context in which about 7 million PCR-type tests, considered the “gold” standard for Covid-19 diagnoses, are parked, near their expiration date, in a government warehouse.

A second survey, conducted by the Brazilian Chamber of Laboratory Diagnostics, indicates that there are at least another 8 million tests in this situation in the country, bringing the figure to at least 15 million Covid-19 tests that expire in March. 2021 in Brazil.

VIDEOS: G1’s most viewed in the last 7 days