Opinion – Vinicius Torres Freire: Vaccination loses rhythm in the country and pocketnarism makes new death campaigns

In January, it is a year since the first vaccination of the campaign against Covid in Brazil. The first dose was for the nurse Mônica Calazans. We then half laughed and half cried to see the smile of the vaccinated woman, to think that it was possible to beat the plague. Despite everything, and put “everything” in it, the SUS showed its known ability to vaccinate, a rare source of national pride.

After a lot of combat against the creature from hell that occupies the power and its phalanxes of demons, we got enough vaccines. Now it’s a little sad to see that they’re left over.

The second dose is still to be given to 34.9 million people aged 12 or over, those who are now able to get the vaccine, because the bad thing wants to deny the medicine to children. It’s almost the population of Canada. It’s half the population of France or the UK.

In Brazil, just over 80% of people over 12 years old have already had a second injection. It’s not little. But it’s not enough. American numbers indicate that the omicron variant manages to bypass the defenses of those vaccinated, although it is far less lethal among those who have been immunized than among those without the vaccine.

The vaccination rate with dose 2 dropped. In part, it’s understandable. There are now many more people vaccinated than unvaccinated. Reducing the number of deaths induces some relaxation. The dark creature continues its campaign against vaccination. Even so.

In December, until the 29th, the daily average of application of a 2 or single dose dropped to 324.5 thousand injections per day. In November, it was 600,000 a day. In September, 962 thousand.

In December, the average application of booster doses was greater than that of dose 2 or single: 327.6 thousand per day. Even with this relative speed, less than 15% of those over 12 years old have already taken the booster dose.

We need a strident national campaign to take those infected to health centers: advertising and “active search” for those with incomplete vaccinations (look at home for those who did not take the 2 dose). “Take your relatives to the ‘postinho'” (“postinho”, as I hear so many people call the basic health units). Take your friend, your neighbor, your coworker.

But there is relative silence in the country, apart from the noise of the anti-vaccine devil who occupies the seat of President of the Republic. Herodes Bolsonaro and his Health doormat are delaying the vaccination of children between 5 and 11 years old, around 20.5 million people. With a little good will, it would be possible to give the first dose to girls and boys in 50 days or so. By March, almost every child could have completed the immunization.

Halfway through this campaign for life, fewer and fewer children would be carrying the virus around, almost always without any symptoms. It would be an extra protection for mothers, fathers, grandparents and for those who take care of children. The network of infections would have one more barrier, there would be less suffering and death in general.

It may be too late for the extra vaccination to contain the impact of the omicron, which can be very intense and brief, as South Africa says. But it is difficult to know; each region has its particular epidemic.

Finally, when in doubt, avoid the proliferation of coronaviruses; limit the risk of this thing becoming a psi, tau, or chi variant.

In the absence of a federal government, states could coordinate a national campaign. The creatures of hell make their own: the crusade against the vaccination of children, the type in the Ministry of Education that wants to ban the demand for vaccination in universities, Pocketnarist deputies who want to stop the obligation of masks for children in schools.

This journalist writes again on the 9th. May the new year end well for people of good will. The middle of the road will be a stone.