CoronaVac did not reach 90% effectiveness in tests in Brazil, says Secretary of Health of SP | Saint Paul

“It did not reach 90% (in tests in Brazil), but it is at levels that allow us to reduce the impact of the disease on our population,” said Gorinchteyn, citing that the percentage is higher than the 50% minimum recommended by the World Organization for health. Health (WHO).

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The rate obtained in Brazil should have been published on Wednesday (23) by the Butantan Institute, but, according to the institute, the Chinese laboratory Sinovac asked that the announcement be postponed. The company wants to analyze the test data to understand the different percentages obtained in the countries where the immunizer is tested.

In an interview with Rodrigo Bocardi, on CBN’s Ponto Final program, Jean Gorinchteyn said that, considering the technique used in the development of the vaccine, there were no expectations of reaching this percentage. “We knew that the effectiveness would never reach 90%,” Gorinchteyn said.

The secretary justified the expectation by citing that vaccines formulated with virus fragments, the so-called inactivated viruses, as is the case with CoronaVac, end up producing a lower percentage of defense than those that use, for example, the technique called attenuated virus (see special ). types of vaccines).

“What we do not imagine is that the company (Sinovac) wanted, and aimed, a unit, a very close result in all countries, and not only in one country or another,” said the secretary, justifying the postponement of the disclosure of the Given.

Preliminary data in Turkey

During the interview, Gorinchteyn did not explain how Turkey, using the same vaccine, achieved 91.25% effectiveness. But the secretary said that it was normal to have some difference between the tests. “We are not going to have the same answer for different populations, because they are very peculiar populations from a genetic and racial point of view,” Gorinchteyn said.

Previously searched by G1, the Butantan Institute said it “does not comment on information about Sinovac’s contracts with other countries.”

According to news agencies, the data from Turkey are preliminary findings from phase 3 of the study, which is still ongoing. The result considers 29 infected people in a smaller group of volunteers, with three cases among those who received the vaccine and 26 in the placebo group.

In Brazil, Butantan had already verified more than 170 infected people by mid-December among its 13,000 volunteers, indicating that the Brazilian study is at a more advanced stage. Even earlier, on November 23, Butantan had already reached the minimum number of infected if it wanted to reveal a previous analysis equivalent to that of Turkey.

At the end of November, there were 74 cases of Covid-19 among the 13,000 Brazilian volunteers. Despite this, on the occasion, the Brazilian researchers did not disclose the percentages and preferred to wait for the studies to continue presenting the final result on December 23, a plan that was postponed.

Despite the postponement in the disclosure of data and, consequently, in sending the studies to the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), Gorinchteyn reaffirmed that the government of São Paulo maintains the forecast for the start of vaccination on the 25th of January.

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