Queiroga says studying cost and effectiveness of annual vaccination for Covid

Minister Marcelo Queiroga (Health) said that the government is studying the cost and effectiveness of annually vaccinating the population against Covid if the disease becomes endemic like influenza.

“As a public policy, we have to analyze a series of aspects, including cost-effectiveness, and this is part of the legislation,” Queiroga told journalists at the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, which he arrived this Wednesday (25) after participating in the World Health Organization conference in Geneva.

He cited the example of vaccination against influenza, which is annual but covers only the most vulnerable groups of the population, such as children up to 5 years old, the elderly and people with low immunity.

“This is public policy, because the private sector can also give vaccines, and people can go to the private sector with the recommendation of their doctor.”

Queiroga, who has been emphasizing the role of the private sector since, with the end of the state of health emergency, companies and clinics were allowed to buy and sell immunizations against Covid, did not make it clear whether this is the policy to be adopted for Covid.

But he indicated that the current prices of the vaccine make universal annual immunization unfeasible: “Vaccines have to lower the price”. According to him, there are conversations with pharmaceutical companies in this regard and also for the purchase of antivirals.

The minister insisted that talking about cost-effectiveness does not mean rejecting the vaccine, but doing the math. “We are in favor [da vacinação]. But you have to rationalize resources, which are finite.”

Asked about Brazil’s preparedness for the case of the spread of monkeypox, Queiroga said that the ministry monitors the cases, but without fanfare: “The position is one of observation, not concern.”