Health announces anticipation of the 3rd batch of vaccine for children on the 24th

The Ministry of Health announced this Monday (17) the anticipation of the delivery of the third batch of Pfizer vaccines against Covid for children aged 5 to 11 years.

The executive secretary of the portfolio, Rodrigo Cruz, said on social media that on January 24, 1.8 million pediatric doses will arrive in Brazil.

This batch was scheduled to be received by the government on the 27th. In total, Health provides for the delivery of 4.3 million vaccines of this type in January.

The first batch of these immunizers arrived in Brazil at dawn on the 13th, while the second landed on Sunday (16).

The forecast is that 7.3 million pediatric vaccines from Pfizer will be delivered in February. In March, Pfizer expects to ship another 8.4 million units.

In addition to those 20 million vaccines, the government expects to receive another 10 million doses of Pfizer for children in the first trimester. This batch, however, does not have a delivery schedule defined by the pharmaceutical company.

Pfizer’s pediatric vaccines are intended for children ages 5 to 11. The orientation of the Ministry of Health is to start immunization for groups with comorbidity, permanent disability, indigenous people and quilombolas. Then children who live with people from risk groups.

After that, there will be a scaling by age group, starting with the oldest.

One of the main differences between vaccines for children and those for adults is the color of the caps – while pediatric vaccines are orange, those for children over 12 are purple.

The objective is to facilitate identification by vaccination teams and by those responsible who will accompany the little ones at the health posts.

Another point is the dosage. While for those over 12 years old the Pfizer doses are 0.3 ml, for the younger ones the dosage is lower, 0.2 ml. For other adult-approved products such as Coronavac and AstraZeneca, the dose is 0.5 ml.

The board of Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) should decide this week whether to release the use of Coronavac to the public from 3 to 17 years old.

Agency technicians work to deliver opinions on the vaccine at the beginning of the week. In an optimistic scenario, the idea is to gather the top of the body to vote on the request of the Butantan Institute on Wednesday (19).

Members of Anvisa say that the trend is to release the application of Coronavac in children and adolescents, but put some conditions. Among them, that the São Paulo laboratory undertakes to generate data on the use of doses in Brazil, in addition to presenting the outcome of a global study being conducted in China, South Africa, Chile, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The vaccination of children and adolescents is a sensitive topic in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, as the president distorts data and discourages the immunization of young people.

The president is still a vector of misinformation about Coronavac, a vaccine promoted in Brazil by São Paulo governor João Doria (PSDB), a political enemy and potential adversary of the president in the dispute for the Plateau this year.

Bolsonaro even threatened to expose the names of Anvisa servers who approved the use of Pfizer vaccines in children. In response, the agency’s president, Barra Torres, told leaf that the statements of the Chief Executive stimulated threatening crimes against the regulatory body.

In a note released on the 8th, Barra Torres also countered insinuations of Anvisa’s alleged ulterior interests in vaccinating children, and demanded the president’s retraction.