More than half of children vaccinated against Covid may be delayed 2nd dose

Child vaccination against Covid in Brazil shows signs of slowness. According to official figures from the Ministry of Health, more than half of the children who received the first dose of one of the vaccines against Covid-19 in the first months of the year may have the second dose delayed.

Data show that 9.2 million children started vaccination in the first few months of the campaign, but only 4.3 million completed this vaccination schedule within the time frame stipulated by the manufacturers — 28 days between doses for Coronavac and eight weeks for the vaccine. Pediatric Pfizer.

This means that 52.9% of second infant doses against Covid may be delayed in application – which, according to experts, can compromise vaccine protection.

The vaccines arrived in children’s arms in January — almost a month after the first authorization from Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency). It started with Pfizer, applied to children aged 5 to 11 from January 14th. Then it was Coronavac’s turn, which began to be taught from 6 to 17 years old from the 20th of that month.

THE Sheet tabulated information from DataSUS to verify how many children aged 5 to 11 years, who had a first dose recorded at the beginning of the vaccination campaign, also had a second dose within the appropriate vaccination interval.

On April 23 – the date stipulated as a cut-off in this analysis –, a group of 3.8 million children vaccinated with the first dose of Pfizer should also have had the second dose. They were immunized with the first application until February 22nd. The records show, however, that 59.3% of them had no record of the second dose at the appropriate interval.

In the case of Coronavac, on the same date as this analysis was cut, April 23, another 5.4 million children who were vaccinated with the first dose up to 28 days before – March 26 – should also have had the second dose recorded. The data, however, show that 48.34% of them had not yet completed the immunization.

The low adherence of children to vaccination against Covid and vaccine abandonment have worried specialists. A study published in February showed that speeding up vaccination could significantly prevent deaths and hospitalizations of children aged 5 to 11 years.

“With the return to school and social activities, and with the circulation of more contagious variants, vaccinating children is essential to contain the circulation of the virus and protect children against severe Covid”, says Natália Pasternak, microbiologist and researcher at USP.

Pasternak has been one of the main names in front of the defense of vaccines to face the pandemic in Brazil. “It is also necessary to carry out campaigns and active search for the second dose”, he adds.

In a note to Sheetthe Ministry of Health said that it has already distributed to states and the Federal District a total of 21.3 million vaccines to immunize the population aged 5 to 11 years with the first dose and another 18.7 million for the second dose.

“Since the beginning of the childhood vaccination campaign, the amount of doses has been distributed in a proportional and equal way, and agreed jointly between the Ministry of Health and representatives of the states, municipalities and DF”, says the note.

Asked about vaccination campaigns to achieve the children’s goals, the ministry replied that it “articulated actions to encourage vaccination, including the placement of an advertising campaign on TV, radio, outdoor media and the internet. of the folder, publications on social networks, in addition to interviews and press conferences for clarification on the subject.”

“Due to the tripartite nature of the SUS, the Ministry clarifies that encouraging childhood vaccination is also the responsibility of states and municipalities,” concludes the note.

The information tabulated by Sheet also point out that most of the records of children who started the vaccine trajectory against Covid in the first months of the campaign, but did not return for the second dose within the stipulated period, are in the North of the country.

Data from Rondônia, Roraima, Acre and Amapá point to more than 70% of delays in the second dose against Covid in the analyzed period.

Federal District, Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo and Paraná are the only ones with less than 50% delays between doses, according to official figures.

Data from Datasus —the Ministry of Health’s information system— is fed by states and municipalities. It is up to the Ministry of Health to monitor and assess the data, as well as correct any problems in filling it out. This information guides public health policies in the country.

According to the National Plan for the Operationalization of Vaccination against Covid-19, data on vaccines must be updated in the federal system up to two days after the date of application of immunizers. THE Sheet considered the information that entered DataSUS up to six days after the cut-off date of this analysis (April 23). The extraction of information from DataSUS was performed on April 29.

The tracking of vaccinated people in Brazil can be done in DataSUS because each immunized person is registered in the system with an identification code, in which there is information about date of birth, dose and batch of vaccine received. There is no personal information about each vaccinated person to identify him or her.

Last year, the Sheet had already indicated a delay in the second dose also for adults. As of April 2021, records show that more than half a million people who received the first dose of Coronavac at the beginning of vaccination in Brazil had no record of the second dose of the immunizer within the appropriate time between doses.

Shortly after the report, the Ministry of Health announced at a press conference that at least 1.5 million people who took the first dose of the Covid vaccine since the beginning of vaccination in the country did not complete the vaccination schedule with the second dose.