Bolsonaro government told states that it would leave vaccines for children halfway through

The Ministry of Health tried to change the pattern at the last minute in the process of delivering vaccines against Covid-19 to states and indicated that the folder would leave pediatric doses halfway through. The command caused confusion in some cities.

In a note, the folder admitted to the leaf that, in the confusion, ministry superintendencies were mobilized for transport and that “caused a mismatch”.

Vaccines for children are being delivered by a newly contracted company with little experience in immunization logistics. There have been reports of doses arriving late or in inadequate storage and transport conditions.

Ministry managers warned states that it would be up to the Health Departments to proceed with the logistics of doses to the local cold stores. THE leaf confirmed the information with representatives of three states.

The warning given by the ministry contradicts the practice adopted until then: the company that usually transports vaccines has the task of completing the transfer of doses from airports to storage centers in capitals, even due to the need for special treatment of immunizers.

Questioned by the report, the Ministry of Health stated, in a note, however, that some superintendencies of the folder in the states and state secretariats of Health ended up mobilizing themselves to transport the doses from the airports to the depots.

“The folder emphasizes that the orientation for the deliveries of immunizers is the usual: the contracted company makes the transport”, said the ministry.

Faced with the warning passed on by a representative of the ministry, right at the beginning of the distribution of doses, local health authorities, however, made immediate contact with the new company hired, IBL (Intermodal Brasil Logística).

The fear of these authorities was that the vaccines could be lost due to the interruption of the transport chain.

The appeal had an effect in at least two cases and the immunizers were transported to the cold storage networks.

“Vaccines arrive in Viracopos [aeroporto em Campinas] and are sent to the distribution center in Guarulhos [aeroporto em São Paulo]. There they are stored and the process of preparing the load begins so that the IBL can send it to the secretariats, even to each secretary of Health”, said the IBL, in a note.

The company that so far delivers the other vaccines against Covid-19, VTCLog, is required by the Ministry of Health to deliver the doses of immunizations directly to the places indicated by the Health Departments of each state.

Report published by leaf on Sunday (16) showed that the new company hired by the management of Minister Marcelo Queiroga (Health), with exemption from bidding, had no experience of transporting vaccines in the public service.

IBL won two contracts at the end of December, in the amount of R$ 62.2 million, to store and distribute the Pfizer vaccine intended for the immunization of children and adolescents. The contracts were signed by General Ridauto Lúcio Fernandes, director of the department’s DLOG (Health Logistics Department).

In addition to the waiver of bidding, special conditions were established in the contract: the term of the contracts may be extended from one to five years, despite the urgency, and IBL was granted 60 days to make the necessary adjustments for the execution of the services, a period that the company said it was not necessary.

The beginning of the distribution of pediatric doses was marked by problems in several regions of the country during the weekend, when the immunization of children began.

Doses were received in the states under inadequate storage conditions. Flights were delayed, which delayed the start of immunization. In some airports, there were no IBL teams to receive and direct vaccines to final destinations.

One of the problems with the absence of company teams at the airport, such as leaf showed, took place in João Pessoa.

The state secretary of Health of Paraíba, Geraldo Antônio de Medeiros, reported that the airline itself was not aware of the change in the guideline in the operation and therefore did not want to release the doses to state agents. Required the presence of company representatives.

Only after several phone calls from the secretary, who warned of the risk of vaccines being lost, did the company send vehicles and transport the cargo to the local government unit.

This Monday (17), Medeiros confirmed again that the other vaccines for Covid-19 — which are still being distributed by another company — adopt a different operating system. VTCLog, responsible for transport and packaging, delivers directly to the location indicated by the secretary.

In Goiás, local authorities were warned that the first batches of vaccine for children would only be transported to the airport.

The local government cold chain is located a few kilometers from the airport. A transport request was made to the company, which had an effect: the logistics were carried out up to the storage center.

The transport of the first doses to the capital of Goiás suffered successive delays, with four reschedulings. The plane ended up landing in Brasília, and it was necessary to transport the doses by land, a distance of 220 kilometers.

Before transporting vaccines to children, IBL provided a single service related to the pandemic, according to the Union Covid-19 Purchasing Panel: collection, separation and delivery of 100,000 masks to federal university hospitals, within a contract of R$ 16 thousand with EBSERH (Brazilian Hospital Services Company).

The contracts for the vaccines involve 16.6 million vials, which must be stored and transported at a temperature between -90ºC and -60ºC.

The company reported a single vaccine shipping experience, with a private laboratory, between 2015 and 2018.

About the immunizers, the IBL stated that the cargo received in Guarulhos is stored in ultrafreezers, arranged in cold chambers, when the preparation for distribution to the states begins.

“Vaccines are stored in isothermal boxes, certified and validated for up to 72 hours with dry ice,” he said in a note. “IBL Logística strictly complies with what is determined in the contract. The other prerogatives are exclusive to the Ministry of Health”, he said.

The company also said that it is one of the largest in the logistics sector in the country and that it was qualified by ministry technicians in the bidding process. Vaccine deliveries are made “in record time, even before the limit required in most markets”.

The ministry said there was no harm to any pediatric vaccine delivered to the states and the Federal District. “The department provided all assistance to the federated entities in the process of sending doses, carried out in record time so that childhood immunization could begin. The company IBL appeared in all capitals to receive the cargo.”

The folder also stated that there was a “selection process” for the choice of IBL, with “competition” between several companies in the market.