January 8, 2022

16:01

Rômulo D’Castro – from Cenarium Magazine

Pará will acquire extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine to immunize children from 5 to 11 years old. The promise is from the governor Helder Barbalho (MDB), who used social networks to make the announcement. 

In the one-minute video, the governor also said that Pará was the state that acquired the most vaccines against Covid-19 in the country. 

In the two statements, however, Helder Barbalho did not disclose how many doses of vaccine for children from 5 to 11 years old the state intends to buy and what the “extra” doses would be, those in addition to those that will be sent by the Ministry of Health. 

Helder also did not inform how many vaccines Pará has acquired since the beginning of the pandemic, which would justify the other statement of the governor, that the state would have been the one that invested the most in vaccine purchase.

Denialist State

By the end of December, a survey by the Health Secretariat of Pará (Sespa) showed that a little more than 5 million and 400 thousand people had taken the first dose; 3.5 million the second dose; and only 330 thousand the third dose (reinforcement).

“It is essential that you who took the first dose go to the post to take the second dose and then the third dose”, asked the governor during the announcement of the mandatory vaccine passport.

According to the government, more than a million doses of vaccine were bought by the state, but the numbers show that the Para population lacks interest in the continuity of immunization, as can be seen in the official data. The drop was almost 50% from the first to the second dose.

Xingu and Tapajós in critical situation

During the official pronouncement, Helder Barbalho talked about the regions with the most critical situation in Pará. They are: Araguaia, Baixo Amazonas, Caetés, Tapajós and Xingu. “In the Tapajós region, more than 50% of the population has not even taken the first dose”, the governor warned on the occasion. 

National polemic

After criticizing Anvisa, the government announced this week the vaccination of children. The National Health Surveillance Agency approved the immunization of people from 5 to 11 years old in a public conference broadcasted by the Internet. 

Since December 16, the date of the approval, Anvisa has been harassed by the federal government. 

Among the attempts at intimidation, President Jair Bolsonaro threatened to release names of researchers involved in the studies that confirmed the effectiveness of the immunizer. 

The vaccines should start being distributed by the Ministry of Health at the beginning of the second half of this month. The government has not yet explained how it will be divided among the states.