Opinion – Atila Iamarino: Working for more children to suffer

The first sites affected by the omicron variant indicate that it can hospitalize less infected than previous waves. It spreads a lot among those who have been immunized by vaccines or past infections, but these cases seem to be milder. In other words, we should see even fewer hospitalizations among Brazilian cases, as we had a lot of Covid and we took a lot of vaccines.

But while adults are spared, children are especially hit by omicrons in South Africa, the UK and the US. Therefore, many European countries rush to vaccinate them. Here, we could take advantage of the infant vaccine against Covid recently approved by Anvisa to do the same, if we didn’t have a denial minister.

Since 2020, we have recorded more than 301 deaths from Covid among children aged 5 to 11 years, a range protected by the approved vaccine. And the minister who should look after health claims that so many deaths “are absolutely within a level that does not imply emergency decisions”. The federal government has already attacked the isolation, taken down Covid’s data and launched an app that suggested chloroquine for babies with fever. Now the health minister applies denial by proposing measures such as an unreasonable public consultation and requirement for a prescription and parental consent to vaccinate children against Covid. Anvisa consulted specialists and its approval does not require a medical prescription. And children usually depend on their parents to go to the health center.

It doesn’t even seem like Zé Gotinha’s Brazil, the country that eradicated polio in 1994 with important achievements that go beyond the childhood vaccine adopted in 1961. In 1973, we created the National Immunization Program, which made massive vaccination possible throughout the country. This PNI has been without command for the last 5 months, after the appointed director was vetoed for… defending the vaccination of children and adolescents. In 1975, we created the communicable disease notification system that allowed us to monitor polio cases. This system still monitors cases of diseases such as Covid (Sinan), but it and other SUS data such as vaccination are down after a hacker attack. We also have Fiocruz, which through Bio-Manguinhos produced a specific formulation of the droplet vaccine to stop the variety of the polio virus that plagued the Northeast, which served as a vaccination model for all of Latin America. The same Fiocruz that is the target of regular attacks by the government.

With so much neglect, the country has regressed a lot in childhood vaccination. We have the worst coverage since the 1980s, we have preventable infections like measles again, and we are in danger of a return to polio. And the increase in hunger increases child malnutrition in Brazil, one of the biggest causes of loss of effectiveness of vaccines.

We live with polio long enough to see its aftereffects in paralyzed adults. And his vaccination was greeted with celebration. At Covid, we develop vaccines before noticing the consequences that children will have. And there may be reluctance in childhood vaccination by the population, as happens in Europe, but not by the minister of health. At least 75% of Brazilians agree with the vaccination and have already taken their first dose. And among the 25% who have not yet been vaccinated are children, who cannot be vaccinated yet thanks to the minister. This government denial does not reflect our will and contributes to Covid killing and sequencing more children and further weakening our protection against childhood infections that it took us decades to achieve.