The questions asked in the public consultation of the Ministry of Health on the vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 against Covid-19, opened this Friday (24), can be misleading and are biased, say experts consulted by leaf.
In addition, the form used by the folder does not follow the basic principles of the LGPD (General Data Protection Law). Sought, the ministry has not yet responded on the flaws pointed out by experts.
“The questions are biased, poorly formulated and have the objective of creating insecurity in the population. It is not possible to tabulate the answers at the end”, says pediatrician and infectious disease specialist Renato Kfouri.
“The consultation itself was totally directed, there is no intention to know the opinion of the population. A survey must have a representative sample, directed to different social classes, ages and regions. Only those who have access are able to answer via the internet, in addition to robots. The result of the poll does not bring any information”, he completes.
In his point of view, the matter should not be dealt with in public consultation, but in a technical scope.
“It would be regrettable for the Ministry of Health to base its decisions on people’s opinions. For that, there is a technical team and the competent bodies”, says Kfouri.
The director of the Brazilian Society of Immunizations (SBIm) Mônica Levi also points out that the consultation raises ambiguous and unclear issues, which can lead the participant to error. For her, the poll aims to legitimize the government’s opinion on the subject.
“It is not a public consultation that aims to listen to the population, the questions are extremely tricky and misleading. Most of them do not understand the content with the terminology used and they are questions that unfold, confused,” he says.
Levi adds that the answers can be mishandled in the statistics because they were formulated in a dubious way. “It leaves a lot of doubts. If you, for example, answer yes it looks like you are agreeing with the ministry, and if you mark no, it looks like you are against vaccination”, he analyzes.
The doctor refers to question 14, in which the ministry asks “do you agree with non-compulsory vaccination in children aged 5 to 11 years, as proposed by the Ministry of Health?”
“I don’t even think there should be public consultation, it’s not a topic to be debated as a controversial topic. The bodies have to assess effectiveness, efficacy and safety and issue guidelines for immunization. There is no controversy that is not political”, emphasizes Levi.
The consultation also raised concerns about data security. Many internet users complained on social networks that they were able to vote more than once with the same CPF or placing random numbers.
“The consultation can be challenged in court for not following basic parameters of data care. The most obvious is that it does not have a declared privacy policy”, observes Fernanda Campagnucci, executive director of Open Knowledge Brasil.
The data management specialist points out that the survey does not indicate how the information of those who voted will be used.
“It’s a blank check that you give when answering the form. The agency should say what it will use the data for, if it is for statistical purposes only, and how long it will take to delete the data. These parameters should be placed in the privacy policy in a form transparent”, he points out.
After three hours on the air, the public consultation reached the maximum limit for contributions, but the poll returned to work shortly after. “Another problem is the tool’s limitation of 50 thousand respondents, it is not known if they opened another form with the same limit”, emphasizes the expert.
“Since 2014 there is a government tool established for public consultation, which has a single login, Participa+. It was relaunched in February this year and could have been used. Everything leads us to believe that the consultation was improvised and that it aims to create parallel flow of information,” says Campagnucci.
The form, according to her, collects more information than necessary and has no validation of information, which also hurts the LGDP and makes room for robots to participate. “There are several rights violated in this public consultation, such as the deferred right to health, data protection, in addition to the lack of transparency.”
SEE SOME QUESTIONS:
- Do you agree with non-compulsory vaccination in children aged 5 to 11 as proposed by the Ministry of Health?
- Do you agree that the benefit of vaccination against COVID-19 for children aged 5 to 11 years should be analyzed on a case-by-case basis, with the presentation of the consent form for parents or guardians being important?
- Do you agree that the benefit of vaccination against COVID-19 for children aged 5 to 11 years should be analyzed, on a case-by-case basis, being important the prescription of the vaccine by pediatricians or physicians accompanying the children?
- Do you agree with the prioritization, in the National Immunization Program, of children aged 5 to 11 years with comorbidities considered at risk for severe COVID-19 and those with permanent disabilities to start vaccination?
- Do you agree that the presentation of a vaccination card is not mandatory for children to attend schools or other commercial establishments?
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