With great delay compared to dozens of countries and amidst an increase in new cases, Brazil started Sunday vaccination against the coronavirus. Nurse Mônica Calazans, 54, was the first to be inoculated with Coronavac, a vaccine made by Chinese drugmaker Sinovac and bought by Butantan, an institute linked to the government of São Paulo. About 100 people, including health professionals and indigenous people, were also vaccinated.
The Brazilian Health Regulator Agency (Anvisa) authorized the emergency use of Coronavac and the vaccine produced by AstraZeneca in partnership with Oxford University. The decision was celebrated by many who feared political meddling of President Jair Bolsonaro, who repeatedly said he was against vaccination.
Marked by a fierce political dispute between São Paulo Governor João Doria, a presidential hopeful, and Mr. Bolsonaro himself, the national vaccination campaign will officially begin Wednesday, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said Sunday. Yet the first shots applied in São Paulo are a victory of Mr. Doria, who bet all his chips in the fight against the disease. The federal government first rejected Coronavac, then accepted to buy all the production of the Butantan Institute, and, in an attempt to start the vaccination before São Paulo, ordered 2 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, but the order was blocked by India, where the shots are produced. The Bolsonaro administration then resorted to Coronavac.
In a public debate, Mr. Pazuello said on Sunday that the ministry gave funds to Butantan to make Coronavac, what the São Paulo administration denies. Mr. Pazuello also said Mr. Doria is breaking the law and disrespecting a contract as he failed to deliver all Butantan’s stock of Coronavac shots and started the inoculation campaign.
Legally supported by an opinion of the state’s Attorney General, Butantan retained São Paulo’s quota – 1,357,640 doses and transferred the remaining doses – 4,636,936 – to the logistics center of the Health Ministry in Guarulhos, São Paulo.
Earlier on Sunday, Anvisa unanimously approved the emergency use of Coronavac and AstraZeneca vaccines, in a 5-hour meeting in which the directors made emphatic defenses of the importance of vaccination and science.
Yet the federal regulator says the distribution of Coronavac still depends on Butantan Institute committing to submit more data on immunogenicity – the vaccine’s capacity to stimulate the production of antibodies. In addition, both Butantan and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), responsible for Astrazeneca’s inoculation, must continue to conduct studies and provide data so that the vaccines have definitive registration. The decision is valid only for imported immunizers, not for those produced in Brazil.
