Queiroga talks about the end of Covid’s ‘pandemic character’ by launching 100% vaccine made by Fiocruz

The Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, said this Tuesday (22) that he intends to “end the pandemic character” of Covid-19.

“Brazil is already studying this type of initiative,” said Queiroga during an event to launch the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is entirely nationally produced by Fiocruz (Fundação Oswaldo Cruz).

According to Queiroga, the government is evaluating the epidemiological scenario and the impact of the change in the disease’s status in Brazil, for example, on vaccines and medicines that are only authorized for emergency use.

“Certain contracts were made during the pandemic. Vaccines that have an emergency record, can they continue to be used outside the pandemic character? All this analysis has to be done so that we can bring a safe word to society”, said Queiroga.

The Coronavac and Janssen vaccines, in addition to some medicines, lose this type of endorsement when the Ministry of Health declares that “there is no longer a situation of Public Health Emergency of National Importance”, according to the current rule of Anvisa (National Health Surveillance).

The government declared a health emergency through an ordinance published on February 4, 2020. Members of the Ministry of Health say that Queiroga and his team are evaluating whether or not this text should be revoked to change the character of the disease in Brazil.

They are also studying whether canceling the ordinance would impact the release of extraordinary credits and other actions linked to the pandemic.

“We have already seen European countries doing this, England announced that it will relax sanitary and restrictive measures. In Denmark there is already a relaxation. It is a trend in the world”, said the minister to the press after the event.

Queiroga applied this Tuesday the first doses of AstraZeneca totally made in Brazil. The government did not release data on those immunized.

The distribution of the vaccine produced from the national API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) was scheduled to start in August 2021, but was postponed.

The event to launch the vaccine was held under a tent outside the Ministry of Health with the presence of ministers Ciro Nogueira (Casa Civil), João Roma (Citizenship), in addition to Queiroga and former Minister of Health Eduardo Pazuello.

The ceremony had speeches in support of President Bolsonaro, who did not follow the vaccination, says he is not immunized and distorts data on the safety and effectiveness of doses.

The Minister of Citizenship, João Roma, said that the government “did not speak in the social area” during the pandemic. He also criticized the governor of Bahia, Rui Costa (PT), who occupies the position that Roma intends to contest this year.

Queiroga once again stated that the Bolsonaro government is “vaccinated against corruption”.

The Minister of Health has said that he wants to start treating Covid-19 as an endemic disease, but has not yet explained what should change in practice.

Earlier this year, some countries, such as the United Kingdom and Denmark, decided to start looking at Covid-19 as an endemic disease and to relax restrictions such as social distancing and mandatory use of masks.

In a bulletin on the pandemic released on the 9th, the Covid-19 Fiocruz Observatory states that the transition from pandemic to endemic does not mean the elimination of the virus. In general, the disease becomes endemic when it is recurrent in a region and there is no unexpected increase in cases.

“This change does not represent, in any way, the elimination of the virus and the disease, nor the reduction of the adoption of individual and collective protection measures”, states the document.

According to the Observatory, the classification of “endemic” can only be thought of after the drastic reduction of transmission by the new variants and through a worldwide vaccination campaign.

The president of Fiocruz, Nísia Trindade, said during the event that the launch of the 100% vaccine made at Fiocruz expands Brazil’s autonomy in the fight against the pandemic. “Urgency, sustainability, autonomy and national sovereignty were the guiding principles of this challenging undertaking,” she said.

The government invested R$ 1.9 billion in the technology transfer agreement to Fiocruz of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

The signing of this transfer agreement has also been delayed. It was supposed to take place in December 2020, it was postponed to February, then April and May, and ended up happening only in June of last year.

Fiocruz had been importing the API to finalize the production of doses in Brazil. In a statement, the laboratory said that more than 550,000 doses made entirely in Brazil have already been delivered.

The ministry has contracted 105 million vaccines from AstraZeneca for 2022, of which 45 million must be made entirely at Fiocruz.

The idea of ​​the public laboratory and the government is also to export the vaccine to health programs in Latin America. Minister Queiroga said that this sale to other countries is still under negotiation.