Vaccine against Covid will be annual for risk group, says new secretary of Health

The new secretary of Health and Environment Surveillance at the Ministry of Health, Ethel Maciel, says that the vaccine against Covid-19 will be incorporated into the government’s annual calendar for people in the priority group —such as the elderly, immunosuppressed people and health professionals.

In the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), the vaccine was not part of the annual vaccination schedule and was only incorporated into the PNO (National Plan for the Operationalization of Vaccination against Covid-19).

The population must be summoned to receive the doses along with the immunization against the flu. The intention is for this to take place from April, giving a deadline to organize the government’s strategy in the first 100 days.

“Now, effectively, Covid enters our Immunization Department. The ministry has just received a large purchase of doses that, in principle, would cover these priority groups”, he tells the Sheet.

“The idea is that the campaign follows the same priority groups of the flu, which are the most vulnerable, such as health professionals, immunosuppressed, elderly. At first, it will be a booster dose with the bivalent vaccine”, he says.

Ethel says that the portfolio will have among its priorities the increase in coverage of all immunizations, and that communication will play a central role in reversing the resistance of the population. Skepticism about doses has grown in recent years, also encouraged by then President Bolsonaro.

“We have the largest immunization program in the world and we have always been an example. Unfortunately, we are coming out of this pandemic with this image… I think that saying ‘scratched’ is too little. so that we can regain confidence [na vacinação]”, said.

Child immunization was falling before Bolsonaro’s management, but the situation has worsened. A survey by the Childhood Health Observatory shows that the polio vaccine, for example, was administered to 74.84% of the target population in 2021, compared to 88.33% in 2018. Until November 2022, it stood at 71.97%.

The Ministry of Health’s strategy is to partner with other folders to achieve the necessary rates. For example, working in schools and placing immunization again as a condition for receiving resources from social programs.

In addition, the new Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, has already determined that the PNI (National Immunization Program) will become a department, gaining more relevance in the new government.

Another measure is to re-establish dialogue with municipalities and states so that vaccination goes hand in hand in all states.

Ethel is the first woman to hold this Health and Environment Surveillance Secretariat.

A professor at the Department of Nursing at the Health Sciences Center at Ufes (Federal University of Espírito Santo), Ethel was the first on the triple list to occupy the position of dean of the institution—but Bolsonaro chose another name for the position.

Like Ethel, Nísia is the first woman to head the Ministry of Health and joins at a time when the transitional government sees a historic dismantling of the SUS, with a loss of resources, a drop in vaccination coverage and a lack of coordination with states and municipalities.