Bolsonaro government vaccinated only 44% of indigenous people against Covid-19 after 10 months

For a long time, fake news made Patkore Kayapó afraid of the Covid-19 vaccine. Delia Benites feared she would die, even immunized, after her teenage daughter carried the virus home. Edney Samias, on the other hand, is concerned about unvaccinated evangelical relatives. The three characters interviewed by Repórter Brasil live in different parts of Brazil, but they share a common experience: they daily witness the federal government’s failure to immunize indigenous peoples against Covid.

Almost a year after the start of the campaign, the Ministry of Health has not yet completed the immunization of even half of the 755,000 who live in Indigenous Lands (TIs), even though they are part of the priority group.

Only 44% of those living in villages received the two doses of vaccine against Covid, according to a survey by the report based on the indigenous vaccination monitor and the epidemiological report from Sesai (Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health), both from the ministry. There are no data on booster doses.

The rate of application is slower than that of the general population, as more than 65% of Brazilians are completely immunized, according to the press release consortium, and 9.3% received the boost. Considering the first dose, vaccination reached 50% of indigenous people living in TIs on November 20, when the initial dose had already reached 74% of Brazilians. Data refer to the total population, which includes children and adolescents.

The low rate of immunization of indigenous peoples is due to fake news, the influence of evangelical churches in the ILs and the anti-vaccination speech of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), according to leaders, indigenous organizations and health experts. In addition, they point out the Ministry of Health’s inability to stop this wave of denial and its slowness with the vaccination of indigenous adolescents, which started late.

“We Kayapós were afraid to take the vaccine. We saw news in the WhatsApp groups saying that the vaccine is not good”, says Patkore Kayapó, president of the Associação Floresta Protegida (AFP), which represents ethnic villages in Pará. in June, five months after the start of the campaign.

Denial and backwardness

The resistance of Patkore and other indigenous peoples is related to current denial discourses and the political context. This is because, historically, vaccination is usually well accepted among indigenous people. Researcher Ana Lúcia Pontes, from the Sergio Arouca National School of Public Health (ENSP/Fiocruz), recalls that, in the campaign against influenza in 2020, 94% of indigenous people over 6 months in 90 days were vaccinated.

“This comparison shows that indigenous health has a structure capable of functioning and that indigenous people have experience that vaccination saves lives. It is clear that there was something uneven in the Covid campaign,” says Pontes. “What concerns us is the general context [de erros] in coping and the lack of planning [do governo]”.

The most recent chapter of neglect was verified in the vaccination of indigenous adolescents, which was only authorized by the Ministry of Health four months after Anvisa released the application of the vaccine in the population aged 12 to 17 years. While several cities started this vaccination in June, the indigenous campaign only started at the end of October.

According to the latest Sesai bulletin, of the 34 indigenous health districts, only 15 applied doses in this group. As a result, only 22% of teenagers received their first dose by November 27th. As a comparison, among non-indigenous people, 70% received the initial dose and 23% the second.

This delay almost ended in a disaster at the house of Delia Benites, from TI Guasu Guavirá, in Terra Roxa (PR). After 20 months of the pandemic, the return of the three daughters to school in person was a source of joy, until she and the girls tested positive for Covid. “I almost died. I was in the hospital for a week,” he says.

The Guarani family is a portrait of how the indigenous people were not treated as a priority by the government — although the STF made this determination. Delia’s daughters could be vaccinated since June, but received the doses only in November, after falling ill. Nor was there any attention at the municipal level. Terra Roxa started vaccinating teenagers on September 22, leaving indigenous people out.

The delay with teenagers is crucial to understand why Brazil must end 2021 without vaccinating even half of the indigenous villages: in the TIs, young people under 18 years make up almost 50% of the population.

“Even if vaccination for those over 18 were successful, it would not be possible to control viral circulation because there would be a large unvaccinated contingent that would remain susceptible”, says Pontes.

With the delay in this age group, there are reports of an increase in cases in other regions, as happened in schools in the Indigenous Reserve of Dourados (MS). Vaccination of indigenous adolescents in MS began a month and a half after the campaign for non-indigenous people in this age group.

Sesai said that it began planning to vaccinate indigenous adolescents in July, but did not comment on why the group’s campaign only started in late October, nor on the fact that more than half of indigenous villagers are without full vaccination. The secretariat pointed out that 83% of adults have completed the vaccination course.

The city of Terra Roxa did not respond.

Fake news and evangelicals

If in the general population fake news did not undermine vaccination, among the indigenous people, misinformation was victorious, given the lack of action by the government.

“Without the presence of qualified interlocutors, the fake news prospered”, analyzes Adriano Jerozolimski, adviser to Associação Floresta Protegida. In this information vacuum, invaders gained ground and undermined the campaign. “In the group of prospectors on WhatsApp, each one speaks what is convenient,” says a health worker, anonymously.

Religious activities are also obstacles. “Many indigenous people are evangelicals and have this fear, they think the vaccine is bad, that they will turn into alligators. Even today, many people think that,” says Edney Samias, a Kokama leader in Tabatinga (AM) who has lost more than 100 relatives to Covid.

In the absence of public authorities, indigenous organizations assumed the responsibility to inform, but reported little government support. “It’s us for us”, says Regis Guajajara, local health adviser at TI Araribóia (MA).

Sesai implemented plans to leverage the campaign, but they did not have the desired impact, according to the Fiocruz researcher. “Vaccination rates went up until May, then it was very slow.” The indigenous health department says it detected false information “at the beginning of the campaign”, but that clarification actions caused adherence to immunization.

“In indigenous health, communication is very broken. We were paddling against the tide,” said a health worker who works in Pará.