City halls withdraw consent form for child vaccine against Covid

The city halls of Curitiba, Salvador, in addition to cities in the interior of Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul, have withdrawn from the requirement to sign a consent form charged to parents, for the application of the vaccine against Covid-19 in children aged 5 to 11 years old.

In most cases, the decision was taken after a barrage of criticism from families and questions from prosecutors.

The requirement of the document is not a rule and it is up to the municipalities to decide on the document. The Ministry of Health guides that the consent form should only be required when parents or guardians are not present during the vaccination.

Specialists attest that the requirement of the document for all immunized children imposes obstacles to the vaccination campaign and increases the hesitation in relation to vaccines.

In Salvador, the city government suspended the requirement after a request for explanations from the Public Ministry of the State of Bahia. The measure – coupled with the charge for copies of documents – caused complaints from parents, as Folha showed.

The document, however, is still required in cases where the parents are absent at the time of vaccination – the person responsible for the child will have to present the term signed by one of them.

There is also a charge to present copies of documents, both from one of the parents and from the children.

In an order, the prosecutors noted that the requirement of the term could “represent embarrassments to the operationalization of the immunization campaign and, consequently, to its progress in Salvador”.

The municipal undersecretary of Health, Decio Martins, argues that the ministry revised the decision because of discussions around the document, which, according to him, was agreed with the MP-BA, the same body that guides the registration of the presence of one of the parents. in vaccination.

“How are we going to prove that the father or mother was really there? Even because there are parents who disagree with the vaccine”, he said.

And he cited the case of the mayor of Salvador himself, Bruno Reis (DEM), who said this Friday (4) that two of his three children of vaccination age did not take the immunizer by decision of his ex-wife, the children’s mother. .

“The clearest example is that mayor Bruno Reis agrees, but his ex-wife, who is a doctor, does not. Imagine other cases that are not public?”, he amended.

Curitiba also adopted a consent form at the beginning of childhood vaccination, but changed the document last week, after a recommendation by the Paraná Public Ministry.

The current document only asks for general data of the child and the parents or guardians to be filled in. In the documents already printed, the part that spoke of consent or refusal was eliminated, according to Flávia Quadros, superintendent of Health Management at the Municipal Health Department of Curitiba.

She explains that a similar document was adopted since the beginning of the vaccination campaign in the capital of Paraná, still last year, to avoid “vaccine sommeliers” and to register cases of elderly people, living in long-stay institutions, who refused to receive the immunizer.

In Rio Grande (317 km from Porto Alegre), the consent form was suspended last week.

The municipality had adopted the same measure when it started vaccinating teenagers last year, according to the city hall. The State Department of Health responded that it follows the guidelines of the Ministry of Health.

The State Council of Municipal Health Departments of Rio Grande do Sul says that there is no guidance from the Ministry of Health on the presentation of documents of the type and understands that the signature is not necessary.

In addition, the council points out, vaccines administered to children have Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) approval for use.

In Rio de Janeiro, the state Public Ministry received complaints about the application of consent forms for childhood vaccination in at least four cities: Nilópolis, Magé, Itaguaí and Araruama.

In all these cases, the MP established procedures to determine the collection of the term, a document that is not required by the Ministry of Health.

In general, city hall representatives claim that there is a requirement from the Ministry of Health, which is not true. This is what, for example, the immunization coordinator of Itaguaí, Núbia Graziela, said in a broadcast on social networks.

“This term is not a requirement of the city hall. It is provided for by the Ministry of Health, because this vaccination has to be consented to,” he said.

After the negative repercussion, the municipality suspended the application of the term on January 24. A similar measure was adopted by Nilópolis, who was applying a document called “term of free and informed consent”.

In addition to asking for the signature of parents and guardians, the term recommended that they seek medical advice if their children had chest pain, shortness of breath and palpitations. Experts say this type of recommendation creates fear among parents and discourages vaccination.

In a note, the city says that it has not requested the term since January 25. “As in other cities, the fact occurred due to a misunderstanding in one of the points of the National Immunization Plan. We also reaffirm our commitment to vaccinating children, as well as the entire population.”

In addition to the Public Ministry of Rio, the Public Defender’s Office also recommended that the municipalities of Rio waive the consent form, restricting its application only to the absence of parents or guardians.

President of the Brazilian Society of Immunizations, pediatrician Juarez Cunha says that the application of these terms imposes obstacles to the vaccination campaign.

“Municipalities requiring this only increase vaccine hesitancy. This document is yet another reason for those parents who are in doubt because of false news about vaccines to delay their children’s vaccinations even further.”

The expert says that the government itself has helped to create an environment of uncertainty in relation to childhood vaccination. It also reinforces that immunizers are safe and that it is essential to vaccinate children.

He explains that a new peak of infections should happen in mid-February and affect, above all, the unvaccinated, the group in which the children are. “This worries us a lot. If the cases increase as predicted, we will have a lack of beds for these children.”