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BRASILIA – The first version of the Ministry of Health’s immunization plan against Covid-19 should be ready after a meeting next Monday of the technical group in charge of developing the strategy. The estimate is to distribute the vaccines simultaneously throughout the country, but there is a possibility that areas that are experiencing an outbreak of the disease will be prioritized.
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The consolidated version of the plan should be completed before the end of the clinical trial phase of the main vaccines against the disease under development in Brazil and around the world. Therefore, you can make adjustments later.
In principle, the idea is to follow the logistic plan already used in the National Immunization Plan (PNI) for all vaccination campaigns promoted by the federal government. In theory, vaccines should preferably be distributed by land, but isolated locations will be served by ships or planes.
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The municipalities are pushing for the group meeting next week to be the deadline to consolidate as many points as possible in the immunization strategy. The expectation is to develop a plan that takes into account different scenarios, according to the main vaccine candidates, since the main obstacle is defining a strategy without knowing which immunizer will be used and if it will be applied in one or more doses.
In addition, the government plan provides, as previously announced, that the distribution of the vaccine prioritizes people from risk groups and health professionals. The vaccination plan is being prepared by ten technical groups, which include both officials from the Ministry of Health and technicians linked to the National Council of Health Secretaries (Conass) and the National Council of Municipal Health Secretaries (Conasems).
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– We do not know which will be the first approved vaccine, we have to work with different scenarios. It is not that the plan has been delayed, it is in construction time and has been in place for a few months. We work with the scenario that each entity will have its fundamental role, but we maintain that the coordination of this process has to be at the central level – says Willames Freire, president of Conasems.
The main vaccines in advanced stage of development in Brazil are those of the University of Oxford and the AstraZeneca laboratory in association with Fiocruz, and CoronaVac, developed by the Butantan Institute in association with the Chinese manufacturer Sinovac. Both are stored at a temperature between 2 ° and 8 ° C, also indicated for Sputinik V, from Russia. Moderna’s vaccine, on the other hand, should be kept at -20 ° C and Pfizer vaccine at -70 ° C, making storage and distribution more expensive.
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Sources heard by GLOBO confirmed that the plan developed by the government works with different scenarios. This is because the logistics strategy will depend on characteristics such as the need for refrigeration and the number of doses required for immunization.
In August, the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) ordered the Civil House to present a plan in 60 days. In September, however, the government appealed the TCU’s decision, arguing that the strategy would fall to the Ministry of Health. The resource is being evaluated by Minister Bruno Dantas.
Supreme Court ruling
Yesterday, Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), scheduled for December 4 the trial of two actions that question the government’s measures in relation to the acquisition of vaccines developed against Covid-19. The background is the statements of President Jair Bolsonaro against the CoronaVac vaccine. Lewandowski has already announced his vote, in which he does not determine that this vaccine is purchased, but establishes criteria that do not allow it to be excluded from government plans if it is approved by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa).
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GLOBO asked the Ministry of Health about the details and deadlines for the publication of the vaccination plan. The ministry responded that it defined ten priority axes that will guide the campaign, but did not specify which ones. The agency also said that the PNI has experience in the area and that the ministry “will send the doses to the states that will carry out the distribution logistics in their municipalities.” (André de Souza collaborated)
