By Samantha Pearson and Luciana Magalhaes
Brazil began its Covid-19 vaccine rollout Sunday with the shot
developed by China's Sinovac, minutes after its approval by
regulators, promising to bring relief to a country that is
struggling to cope with a surge in infections.
The country's health regulator, Anvisa, approved emergency use
of the Chinese vaccine, known as CoronaVac, as well as the shot
developed by AstraZeneca PLC and Oxford University.
The ruling follows a bitter tug of war between President Jair
Bolsonaro and São Paulo's powerful state governor, João Doria, to
secure the first vaccines for the country of more than 210 million
people.
Gov. Doria, who is expected to run for president next year, has
led a partnership with Chinese company Sinovac Biotech Ltd. to test
and produce CoronaVac in São Paulo, criticizing what he has called
a "genocidal" lack of action by Mr. Bolsonaro.
The dispute comes as the country's average daily death toll
approaches 1,000 people, with scientists warning that a new variant
that likely emerged in the Amazon could be partly responsible for a
recent surge in infections. For the past week, Brazil has
registered an average of more than 50,000 new cases of the disease
each day -- the highest since the coronavirus pandemic began.
More than 200,000 people have died from Covid-19 in Brazil so
far, the highest number of deaths reported anywhere outside the
U.S.
"This is a triumph for science, a triumph against the deniers,
against those who prefer the smell of death over the value and joy
of life," Gov. Doria said. A former television star and
businessman, he broke down into tears as the first Brazilian, a
female nurse, was vaccinated during a news conference Sunday in São
Paulo.
Anvisa's decision comes after the regulator on Saturday rejected
an initial request by pharmaceutical company União Química for
emergency use of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, saying
the laboratory didn't meet the minimum requirements.
After importing 10.8 million doses of CoronaVac from China, São
Paulo's government said it would continue to roll out the vaccine
among health workers across Brazil's richest and most populous
state over the next few days. The Butantan Institute, a São
Paulo-based public institute that carried out late-stage trials of
CoronaVac, is also in the process of producing an additional 46
million doses in Brazil.
With an efficacy rate just above 50%, CoronaVac is one of the
weakest Covid-19 vaccines under development but it still works
better than many flu vaccines and can be stored in an ordinary
refrigerator, making it cheaper and easier to transport in poorer
regions, infectious-disease specialists said.
Meanwhile, President Bolsonaro, a populist ex-army captain, has
spent much of the past year dismissing Covid-19 as nothing more
than a "little flu" and urging Brazilians to ignore the lockdown
measures imposed by state governments and get back to work.
A fierce critic of China and Gov. Doria, Mr. Bolsonaro has also
sought to discredit CoronaVac, warning his supporters it could
disable or even kill them, without offering evidence.
Mr. Bolsonaro barred his health minister Eduardo Pazuello last
year from buying CoronaVac for national use, betting instead on the
AstraZeneca-Oxford shot. But after the development of the latter
hit delays, the ministry said this month it would buy as many as
100 million doses of CoronaVac. Meanwhile, the federal government
is still struggling to import doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford shot
via distributors in India.
As São Paulo rolled out its first vaccines on Sunday, Mr.
Pazuello gave a televised statement, telling Brazilians that the
federal government already had CoronaVac shots in its possession,
saying Mr. Bolsonaro's administration had paid for them. Gov. Doria
said this information wasn't true, saying his state hadn't received
federal money for the vaccine. Gov. Doria said he had authorized
its distribution only on Sunday, posting photos to Twitter of
refrigerated trucks loaded with vaccines ready to depart and urging
the federal government to administer them as fast as possible.
Sunday's announcement was a rare piece of good news in a country
that has been battered with tales of spiraling deaths and political
infighting since the pandemic began. "It's about time!" said Victor
Belinatti, a 23-year-old graphic designer from São Paulo, saying he
agreed with the distribution of the vaccine to the rest of the
country. "So many states are facing difficulties...we have to be
fair."
The political battle over vaccines comes as the health systems
of states such as Rio de Janeiro and Amazonas in the Amazon
rainforest verge on the edge of collapse.
Relatives of critically ill patients in Manaus, one of the
biggest cities in the Amazon, have resorted to buying their own
oxygen canisters as supplies run out across the state.
The lives of more than 60 premature babies in need of oxygen are
also at risk, Amazonas's government said Friday, warning it would
have to transfer them to other states to keep them alive. The
health ministry said late Friday that it was sending enough oxygen
to support them for another 48 hours.
Venezuela's foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, said Saturday that
trucks carrying "thousands of liters of oxygen" were also on their
way to Manaus from Puerto Ordaz, a 26-hour drive north through the
rainforest.
For Mr. Bolsonaro, a staunch conservative and critic of China's
Communist Party and Venezuela's socialist regime, this weekend's
events are likely to erode his popularity, political scientists
said.
Mr. Bolsonaro, who is facing dozens of impeachment requests from
opposition parties, has remained popular throughout the pandemic,
in part because of generous handouts to the poor last year.
However, with the payments now stopped, Mr. Bolsonaro will face
increasing pressure, said Rafael Cortez, a political scientist at
São Paulo-based consulting firm Tendências.
"All this talk of impeachment should further weaken the
government and its relationship with Congress," Mr. Cortez said.
"It's going to be a difficult year for Brazil and for
Bolsonaro."
Write to Samantha Pearson at samantha.pearson@wsj.com and
Luciana Magalhaes at Luciana.Magalhaes@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 17, 2021 18:01 ET (23:01 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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