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São Paulo State Health Secretary Jean Gorinchteyn said today that CoronaVac did not reach 90% effectiveness in Brazil and that he knew that “effectiveness will never” reach this rate. The figures, however, are lower than those announced today by Turkey, which showed an efficiency of 91.25% in phase 3 tests carried out in the country.
“All vaccines that are formulated by virus fragments end up producing fewer antibodies than with live viruses, which we call attenuated, such as measles and yellow fever, which produce less protection. We knew that the effectiveness would never reach 90%, but what we did not imagine is that the company was looking for a similar result in all countries, “said Gorinchteyn in an interview for CBN radio.
Due to the contractual secrecy of the Butantan Institute, the secretary did not report the exact effectiveness of the vaccine, but guaranteed that it is above 50%, the minimum, according to him, required by the WHO.
“We do not have information (on the percentage) for the sake of absolute confidentiality in the Butantan Institute, but it did not reach 90% and although it did not reach that, the lowest values, above 50%, are at levels that allow us to reduce the impact of the disease on the population, “he said.
Gorinchteyn said that even with less than 90% effectiveness, the vaccine must meet the requirements to be approved.
“There will be no risk of not having the Butantã vaccine for the protection of all Brazilians,” he said.
Postponed announcement
In Brazil, yesterday, the Butantan Institute and the São Paulo State Government did not report the effectiveness rate of the immunization test in the country, but announced that it was safe and effective enough to request the emergency use registration. It was not the first time the announcement of the rate had been postponed.
This time, the official version of the São Paulo executive was that Sinovac will review the data before sending it to Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency). The agency should only receive the documentation within 15 days, when it will analyze the information and decide whether to approve the use of the immunizer in national territory.
Asked about Turkey’s results, the São Paulo institute said that it “does not comment on information about Sinovac’s contracts with other countries.”
“In clinical tests carried out in Brazil with 13 thousand volunteers, the vaccine has already proven to be extremely safe and with a level of effectiveness higher than that indicated by the WHO (World Health Organization)”, says the note. “This is a great step forward, because, based on the results obtained so far, mass vaccination using the immunizer would already guarantee significant reductions in the number of hospitalizations for complications related to the coronavirus.”
According to the team of Governor João Doria (PSDB), by the end of this month, Butantan will have 10.8 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine on Brazilian soil. Today a shipment with 5.5 million doses arrived at the Viracopos airport in Campinas (SP).
To be used in Brazil, any vaccine must have the registration approved by Anvisa.
(With Reuters) *
