Brazil begins vaccinating kids after weeks of delay

Fifteen Brazilian kids acquired COVID-19 vaccines on Friday, marking the beginning of an effort that was delayed a number of weeks by the federal authorities’s reluctance to endorse the immunization of kids.

The nation’s well being regulator issued approval on Dec. 16 for the administration of the Pfizer shot to children aged 5 to 11. The choice incensed Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, who has since complained about vaccinating kids, saying he will not let his 11-year-old daughter get photographs and warning of doable negative effects.

A research launched by U.S. well being authorities in late December decided that critical negative effects of the Pfizer vaccine in 5 to 11 12 months olds are uncommon. The outcomes had been primarily based on roughly 8 million doses distributed to kids in that age group.

Somewhat than observe the regulators’ steering, Bolsonaro’s Well being Ministry printed a web-based questionnaire asking if kids ought to want a health care provider’s prescription to get the shot. A number of the president’s supporters, like him leery of vaccines, campaigned on social media apps for individuals to vote in opposition to them for kids.

Regardless of that, a majority of the survey’s virtually 100,000 members opposed the necessity for prescriptions and the Well being Ministry introduced final week that it might enable kids to be vaccinated.

An 8-year-old from the Xavante Indigenous group was the primary to get a shot on the ceremony in Sao Paulo’s Hospital das Clinicas, sooner or later after 1.2 million doses designated for kids arrived at an airport within the state.

The boy has been present process therapy in Sao Paulo for a genetic illness that requires him to put on braces on his legs. His father Jurandir Siridiwe, a tribal chief, watched his son’s immunization broadcast through the web.

“If we had began instantly after Anvisa (the well being regulator) permitted in December the Pfizer vaccine for youths of this age, immediately all the youngsters in Brazil would have been vaccinated with at the least one dose,” Gov. João Doria mentioned on the occasion.

The Well being Ministry really helpful an eight-week interval between kids’s first and second doses of the Pfizer shot, fairly than the three weeks really helpful by the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.

In Sao Paulo state, meaning kids who’re scheduled to return to in-person lessons at public colleges on Feb. 2 will accomplish that earlier than receiving a second dose.

Whereas kids are a lot much less probably than adults to undergo extreme sickness or die from COVID-19, advocates say vaccinating them can reduce the virus’ unfold of their households and society as an entire.

Brazil has begun experiencing a surge in COVID-19 instances and Well being Minister Marcelo Queiroga mentioned Thursday that the extremely transmissible omicron variant has turn into the dominant pressure in Brazil.

By Friday afternoon, solely six of Brazil’s 27 states had acquired vaccines for kids. The Well being Ministry’s press workplace cited logistical hiccups and informed The Related Press that the doses shall be delivered to the remaining states over the weekend. Most of them will start vaccinating children on Monday.

Brazil has about 20 million kids aged 5 to 11, in line with the ministry.

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