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The federal government today set a deadline to begin the national vaccination campaign against covid-19. In response to a question from the STF, the AGU (Advocacia-Geral da União) reported that the forecast of the Ministry of Health is to start vaccinating priority groups five days after having the approval of Anvisa and the delivery of the first doses from an agency certified immunizer.
The folder, however, continues without giving a specific date to start vaccination, conditioning this on the definition of which will be the first vaccine to have an approval for emergency use by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency). In a note, the government said it will officially present the national plan tomorrow at 10 a.m., with the presence of President Jair Bolsonaro and Minister Eduardo Pazuello.
Currently, the Pfizer / Biontech vaccine and CoronaVac are the main candidates for authorization and have doses available for use, but neither has yet been submitted to the federal agency. Emergency use of the Pfizer immunizer is already being used in the US, UK and other countries.
16 months to vaccinate the “general population”, predicts the government
The government also delivered a forecast to complete the immunization of the “general population” in one year, which leaves the vaccination plan with 16 months, since the first four months will be for priority groups.
The AGU’s response was delivered to the STF (Supreme Federal Court) after a request from Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, rapporteur of two actions on vaccination against covid-19 in court. Lewandowski made the request on Sunday (13), giving 48 hours to respond, after receiving a vaccination plan from the government that did not contain start and end dates.
The portfolio calendar includes four phases for priority groups, each lasting one month.
- First, health professionals, people aged 75 years and over, indigenous people and people over 60 years old who are in shelters or nursing homes will be vaccinated.
- Later, people older than 60 to 74 years will be immunized.
- The third phase will be for people with comorbidities.
- Finally, the last phase of the priority groups will include teachers, security and rescue forces, as well as professionals from the prison system.
The AGU’s response to the Supreme Court states that there are currently four vaccines in Brazil in phase 3 studies, which attest to the effectiveness of the immunizer. In addition to the vaccine from the American laboratory Pfizer and CoronaVac, which is developed by the Butantan Institute, a body linked to the São Paulo government, in association with the Chinese laboratory, the immunizers of the pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Jansen also have clinical tests in the country .
The AstraZeneca immunizer is known as the Oxford vaccine, since it is developed with the University of Oxford, and is the main commitment of the Brazilian government for the national vaccination plan. Although it is negotiating the purchase of 70 million initial doses of the Pfizer vaccine, the Ministry of Health expects to have more than 100 million doses of AstraZeneca.
Subsequently, the laboratory will carry out a technology transfer so that Fiocruz (Fundação Oswaldo Cruz), a federal institution, can produce the vaccine locally.
The government also has 42.5 million doses of the Covax Facility, a global vaccine alliance led by the WHO (World Health Organization).
