Beep and whir machines, nurses and doctors shower as they rip into an old man’s room gasping for air that won’t come. The decision to make an intubate is quick. This is his only chance at surviving far from certainty.
Among the half-dozen or so in the room, nurse Monica Aparecida Calazans says she has already seen too many deaths. “I’ve already lost eight of my colleagues to Covid,” she said. “It’s such a serious disease.”
On Sunday, only 0.5% of the country had received the first dose of the AstraZeneca or Sinovac vaccines. Only one person in Brazil has been fully vaccinated except some who have participated in vaccine clinical trials.
In addition, vaccine supply is very limited and there is a remarkable lack of precision in the government ‘s plans to make it more secure.
“I would say Brazil is the first one”
Back in June 2020, few thought Brazil would struggle so badly with its disbandment.
The country’s vast national health care system has a long history, with health workers present in almost every thousands of Brazilian cities through a series of hospitals and clinics, with the successful vaccination of its people.
But several experts say the instability of the federal government, led by Covid-skeptic President Jair Bolsonaro, has damaged his coronavirus response. They point to a particular lack of urgency on the part of the federal government to secure supply and a lack of diversification in vaccine supply.
“At the beginning of the pandemic I would have told you that Brazil was the first country in Latin America to vaccinate the population because we know how to do it,” said Natalia Pasternak, a microbiologist from Brazil and a healthcare candidate. “We have all the infrastructure we need. Now we need a better president.”
Brazil’s federal health officials first announced a distribution plan similar to the plan of many other major countries. He would make the country the AstraZeneca vaccine, delivering around 30 million doses by the end of January 2021.
An additional 200 million would be produced by the end of the year, administered first to health care workers and the elderly and then down the line in order of vulnerability.
The Brazilian government has clearly expressed its initial hopes on the AstraZeneca vaccine. But his vaccine tests, beyond the others, gave him a completely normal and expected potential due to a nature never seen before in the development of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Brazil’s vaccine regulatory body finally approved the emergency use of AstraZeneca vaccine on January 17, but the lack of the active ingredient needed to make the vaccine means Brazilian labs have yet to start producing hundreds of millions. of doses required.
Supplies are expected to begin this week, but the delay has halted the government’s timeline. There is no specific date for when finished doses will begin.
As major countries with similar purchasing power made agreements last year to buy other vaccines from the likes of Moderna and Sinovac, Brazil stood pat.
The Brazilian health minister even rejected an offer in August from Pfizer to buy up to 70 million doses of his vaccine. The ministry defended the decision, saying in part that they were concerned about the promise of payment and an agreement that contractual cases would be handled in a U.S. court.
“This is why you don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” Pasternak said. “There is no reasonable explanation without planning in advance how you are going to vaccinate your population.”
However, Bolsonaro recently said that no government can do “better than my government is doing. “
Flip-flop China Bolsonaro
The best hope in Brazil for short-term vaccine supply seems to be the CoronaVac, developed by the Chinese company Sinovac. Regulators approved the emergency use on January 17 and the Bolsonaro administration has approved the purchase of 100 million doses.
He continued to despise the vaccine as the Governor of São Paulo, João Doria, a similar political and competitive rival in the 2022 primary race, adopted it.
Doria went around Bolsonaro’s administration and negotiated directly with China for the Sinovac vaccine, eventually receiving millions of doses. Doria says the president’s action on the supply of goods put her hand. “In Brazil, we have to fight against two viruses, the coronavirus and the Bolsonaro virus,” Doria said in an interview.
Doria had to divert his state’s supply of the China-made vaccine to the federal government. “We must [vaccinate] sooner than we are going now, “he said.” We need more vaccines but this responsibility belongs to the federal government. “
Both men may now be involved in a vaccine that appears to be less effective than others. Recent data show that the CoronaVac vaccine has a 50.4 percent effectiveness, elucidating the WHO guideline of 50 percent with the narrowest margins.
Bolsonaro has said that, in addition to existing purchase agreements, his administration would purchase vaccines as long as they are available. It is a vague statement, considering that vaccines are among the most popular in the world.
Angry, annoyed, and helpless
The upheaval and frustration over Brazil’s vaccine spread comes at a time when Brazil’s behavior has never been worse.
In addition to the overall increase in daily cases and deaths that are among the highest in the pandemic to date, a new Covid-19 variable has revealed that epidemiologists say it is easier to transfer and may be more deadly.
Vaccines are needed more than ever but for now, that supply does not exist. Júlio César Barbosa, a nurse who works at a public hospital in São Paulo, has volunteered to vaccinate people, but says he feels helpless amid the shortage. “I am worried and angry about our government because, from the very beginning, they have been affected by this virus. “
Natalie Gallón from CNN contributed to this report.