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BRASILIA – After a group of researchers cited by the Ministry of Health as collaborators in the preparation of the national vaccination plan against COVID-19 They complain of not having been consulted on the final version of the text presented on Saturday 12, the folder alleged on Sunday morning the 13th that the invited experts “had no decision-making power” in the immunization program.
The ministry’s plan was delivered by the Jair Bolsonaro administration on Friday the 11th at Supreme Federal Court (STF), which released the text on Saturday, December 12. But a group of 36 experts listed in the document issued a note hours later in which they claim they had not read or given “consent” to the plan.
The Ministry of Health responded this Sunday that the professionals appointed by the National Immunization Program (PNI) acted as “special guests” in the debates on the vaccination plan against covid-19. According to the folder, the role of the experts was “stubborn and without decision power” on the plan presented yesterday.
The ministry also counters criticism from the group of experts, who expressed concern about the withdrawal of priority groups (prisoners were removed from the list of groups to be vaccinated). The researchers demanded that “all vulnerable populations, such as indigenous people, quilombolas, riverine populations, deprived of liberty and people with disabilities, be included in the priority of vaccination.” They also highlighted the need to “expand outreach to all education workers” (not just teachers) and the inclusion of employees from other essential services.
The Health Ministry responded that any vaccination plan should include a group of the most vulnerable people, but said other groups could be immunized after the initial phases of the program. The plan presented the day before includes, in the first phase of vaccination, people over 75 years of age and over, health professionals, people over 60 years of age and over and the indigenous population. The other phases, on the other hand, include people aged 60 to 74, people with comorbidities, teachers, security and rescue personnel, and prison staff.
“All the others will be able to be immunized after immunizing the groups specified as priorities, which deserve greater attention given the greater vulnerability to the disease and its consequences, including death,” the folder emphasized on Sunday.
Experts dissatisfied with being cited in the plan also criticized the lack of inclusion of all available vaccines that prove to be safe and effective. There are also no dates for the start of any phase of the plan. In the document, the ministry presents as “guaranteed” 300 million doses of vaccines against covid-10, of which more than 180 million would come from the agreement with the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom, and the pharmaceutical industry. AstraZeneca, 42 million would be contributed by Covax Facility, an initiative led by the World Health Organization (WHO), and another 70 million would come from the US company Pfizer, purchase still in negotiation.
In the section in which it lists the vaccines “already guaranteed”, the federal government does not mention Coronavac, developed by the Chinese laboratory Sinovac is he Butantã Institute, linked to the government of São Paulo, by João Doria (PSDB), political opponent of the president. But it says that “it will grant an extraordinary credit for the acquisition of each and every one of the vaccines that acquire registration in an urgent or regular manner that presents efficacy and safety for the Brazilian population.” Government Bolsonaro prepares a provisional measure to release R $ 20 billion to buy and centralize the distribution of immunizers in the country.
In a note, the Ministry of Health assured that it did not present an exact date for vaccination because there is still no “effective and safe vaccine” in the national market, approved by National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa).
“Presenting a date, specifying an immunobiological and presenting information without proper identification of a vaccine approved by Anvisa does not comply with the safety and efficiency practices of the National Immunization Program of the portfolio, which does not work with speculations without technical and scientific confirmation” , completed the ministry.
The inclusion of names is ‘serious’ and the ministry was ‘inelegant’
After hearing this Sunday’s note, the Federal University of Espirito Santo (UFES) Ethel Maciel, one of the group’s experts who was not consulted on the plan, once again considered the inclusion of the names of the professionals in a document that had not been previously presented to them “serious”. “The ministry delivered an official document to the STF with our names under the word ‘elaboration’. If they only invited us to the debate, the folder would have to use another expression,” said the epidemiologist.
He was surprised by the release of the note in the folder even before the scheduled meeting between the group and the Ministry of Health for next Monday 14. “The response of the ministry is even more inelegant. The ministry should apologize, admit that it was wrong to list our names as editors, and to send a new document to the STF changing this connotation. Addressing the press before the researchers was more disrespectful, “he added.
Therefore, the teacher and other colleagues even evaluate asking for their names to be excluded from the document. “We are a large group and each one will have to decide what to do. Depending on what the ministry says at the meeting, I will ask that my name be removed. I cannot sign something with which I do not agree,” he added.
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