The Health Minister, Marcelo Queiroga, said this Thursday (23) that the deaths of children by Covid-19 are at a low level, which would not imply not taking “emergency decisions”, such as authorizing vaccines for children.
“Child deaths are absolutely within a level that does not imply emergency decisions,” Queiroga told reporters in front of the folder. “In particular, the Ministry of Health has to make its decisions based on scientific evidence.”
According to data from the Epidemiological Surveillance System for Influenza (SIVEP-Influenza), up to December 6, 301 deaths of children between 5 and 11 years old by Covid-19 have been registered since the beginning of the pandemic.
In 2020, 2,978 had severe acute respiratory syndrome due to the coronavirus, and of these, 156 progressed to death. This year, there were 3,185 cases in the age group, and 145 deaths.
The ministry received a favorable recommendation from Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) last week for the application of the Pfizer vaccine in children aged 5 to 11 years.
However, Queiroga announced that the ministry will only decide on the inclusion of the age group in the National Immunization Program (PNI) only on January 5th, and that it will hold a public consultation on the subject.
The proposal was published in the Official Gazette of the Union, starting on Thursday and ending on the 2nd. Until the beginning of this afternoon, however, the consultation was not included on the ministry’s website.
The Council of Municipal Health Secretaries of the State of São Paulo (Consems-SP) released a statement on Thursday in which it classifies as “unnecessary and unacceptable” the opening of the public consultation.
The collegiate cites the fact that Ctai-Covid (Covid-19’s Technical Advisory Board on Immunization) has already supported Anvisa’s decision. The minister himself had mentioned waiting for the Ctai decision as one of the points to be in a hurry, but the chamber expressed its opinion on Friday (17).
“The Ministry of Health (MS) has all the necessary foundation for taking an urgent decision to include the vaccine against Covid-19 in children in the Vaccination Campaign already authorized by Anvisa and endorsed by Ctai-Covid, and it should quickly take the necessary measures for the acquisition of vaccines, according to the country’s needs”, says the text of the São Paulo secretaries.
The STF (Supreme Federal Court) was called upon and asked the government for a vaccination plan. But later, the reporting minister Ricardo Lewandowski complied with the request of the AGU (Adovacia-Geral da União) and extended the deadline until January 5th.
As one of the arguments of the AGU (Attorney-General of the Union) to postpone the presentation of the plan was precisely the public consultation, the STF minister demanded the presentation of documents by the established deadline.
In addition to the result, Lewandowski asks for the methodology used; sampling plan, indicating the people consulted and the area where the consultation is to be carried out; consultation period; control system; conference and inspection of data collection; questionnaire applied; and, of course, the result.
On Monday (20), Queiroga had said that “haste is the enemy of perfection”, and that the priority would be “safety”, when asked if it would not be possible to bring the process forward for the last few weeks of this year.
Anvisa’s decision led to a flood of threats to the agency’s technicians and directors, who sought out the Federal Police (PF) for protection and to open an investigation.
Although the first request awaits a response, the PF has already instituted a procedure to investigate the threats. Among the terms used against public servants are: “traíra”, “communist”, and “last warning”.
President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said last week that he would disclose the names of those involved in approving the vaccine for children at Anvisa, which has not yet occurred. However, the initiative was seen as a form of intimidation by the technicians.
Since Bolsonaro spoke about it on Thursday (16), threats have intensified over the weekend, and now exceed 150.
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