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The Ministry of Health and the Butantan Institute exchanged accusations on Thursday (18) about the delivery times of the Coronavac vaccine, developed by the Chinese company Sinovac and produced in Brazil by the São Paulo institute.
Like leaf He showed, the Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, released in a meeting with governors this Wednesday (17) a schedule in which he expected the delivery in February of 9.3 million doses of Coronavac.
The total, however, was higher than what was announced hours before by Butantan. The institute expects to deliver 426,000 daily doses starting on the 23rd, which would correspond to 2.6 million doses.
In addition to other doses already delivered earlier this month, the total available in February would reach 3.7 million.
In a statement, the ministry says it “had the delivery” of 9.3 million doses and it was just this Thursday informed that it will receive a lower value than expected. “The reduction in the number of vaccines breaks the expectation of the Ministry of Health to comply with the published schedule,” he reports.
The folder also says that the difficulty of maintaining the initial schedule “is that Butantan can deliver the doses provided for in the contract.”
“Given the situation, the Ministry of Health should review the distribution of vaccine doses for the month of February,” says the folder, which says that it had already informed the states and municipalities of the distribution forecast.
“It is very difficult to plan without having confirmation that we are going to receive it,” said executive secretary Elcio Franco in a video released by the ministry.
The statements caused discomfort in the São Paulo Institute, which issued a note in response stating that the ministry “ignores a fight with China and decides to attack Butantan.”
According to the laboratory, the ministry “does not report that the diplomatic attrition caused by the Brazilian government in relation to China has caused delays in the shipment of the raw material necessary for the production of the vaccine.”
It also says that there was no commitment from the federal government in the negotiation to release inputs and attributes the endorsement for the release to interventions by the São Paulo government.
“It is incredible that the Ministry of Health wants to attribute to Butantan the responsibility of its total lack of planning, which caused the lack of vaccines for the population in several municipalities of the country,” he adds.
Also according to the institute, 9.8 million doses have already been delivered to the ministry for the vaccination campaign.
This, however, is not the first time that members of the government and Butantan have exchanged criticism regarding Coronavac. Last year, the vaccine was at the center of a political dispute between President Jair Bolsonaro (no party) and São Paulo Governor João Doria (PSDB-SP).
In October, the ministry announced that it would buy 46 million doses of the vaccine, but withdrew the next day after the president said he would not allow the purchase of the “Chinese Doria vaccine.”
After months of fighting, the contract was signed in January. Currently, the Ministry of Health expects to receive 100 million doses of Coronavac.
The immunizer was the first to be used in the Covid vaccination campaign. On Thursday, the folder sent a letter to Butantan expressing its intention to obtain another 30 million doses starting in October.
