Brazil needs to win the anti-child vaccination campaign led by the Federal Government and its denialists to protect its children against C.vid. As scientists, it is our responsibility to bring the best scientific information, true, reliable and transparent. It is our responsibility as parents to help clarify honestly and sincerely the doubts of other parents, grandparents and guardians of our children. É our duty as Brazilian citizens, to fight against anti-vaccines, os spreaders of lies and against the monster of denialism and intellectual obscurantism that takesou account of that country. Science has provided an extraordinary response in this pandemic: we have vaccines that save lives. TWe have epidemiological, sanitary, ethical and moral reasons to vaccinate our children. Children are in the process of training and encouraging vaccination has an educational, pedagogical nature, transmitting values such as empathy, respect for life, human dignity and social responsibility. It is a huge lesson in citizenship for our children, understanding the importance of vaccination for protecting the community, that individual decisions have an impact on the collective and that the impact of this choice can prevent serious cases, hospitalizations and deaths not only of children, but of all people.
Deaths in band 0-19 years old due to Covid-19
According to data from the Epidemiological Bulletins (BE) of the Ministry of Health (MS) – BE 100 (last with data from 2022), BE 92 (last with data from 2021), BE 44 (last with data from 2020) – since the beginning of pandemic, there were 2.842 deaths from Cvid-19 in age group 0-19 years, with 863 deaths in the range of less than 1 year, 448 in the range of 1 to 5 years and 1.531 between 6 and 19 years. These numbers are underreported and outdated, as according to the bulletins, the total number of deaths due to Cvid-19 in the period 2020 to 2022 to date is 579.991. The total number of deaths collected by the press consortium is 644.695 and shows a difference of 64.704, suggesting that the total number of deaths in range 0-19 years is even higher.
Approval of pediatric vaccines by Anvisa
Anvisa approved the expansion of the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for vaccinating children aged 5 to 11 against Cvid-19, on 16/12/2021. On 20/01/2022, Anvisa approved the emergency use of the CoronaVac vaccine in children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years. Brazil started vaccinatingthe age group of 5-11 years only on 14/01/2022, around 30 days after Anvisa approved the Pfizer vaccine. Even with the extraordinary legacy of the National Immunization Program (PNI), which allows Brazil to vaccinate very calmly more than 1 million people per day, the country vaccinated, until 21/02/2022, approximately 7,5 million children aged 5-11 years old, which corresponds to 36,4% of the total in this age group, in the period of 39 days. Is very little!
If we had official campaigns to raise awareness and enlighten parents and guardians by the Ministry of Health, defending the importance of vaccination to protect children, we could have vaccinated more than 95% of children during this period. But contrary to what we expected from a body that has historically always defended vaccination and health measures to protect our population, the current MS works against it. Exactly who should defendr vaccination and taking the lead in combating fake news, campaigns against child vaccination. Hence, we have this low adherence.
Episodes of sabotage of vaccination against Covid-19 in BBrazil
There are many reasons for the low levels of childhood vaccination to date. We never had a campaign in mass media and in various media, defending childhood vaccination led by the MS. Mass communication strategies, with clear and objective information, play a fundamental role and should be a State policy. But unfortunately, today we are exposed to an anti-science government policy and Brazil is experiencing a serious management crisis. Denialists are taking up a lot of space on social media, spreading the plague of misinformation, which kills.
We cannot forget that due to the Federal Government's negligence in combating the pandemic and the lack of access to official death data, a press consortium was formed at the beginning of the pandemic by media outlets to bring correct information to the Brazilian population. . Since the alleged hacker attack on the MS At the beginning of December 2021, the Brazilian population also did not have access to updated numbers of deaths by age group and epidemiological indicators.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, authorities linked to the federal government have promoted ineffective treatments, after They ignored Anvisa's approval of the Pfizer vaccine, took a long time to purchase pediatric vaccines and fueled conspiracy theories that the vaccines are unsafe. They still question suefficacy and safety and defend the kit C scamovid, containing hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, chloroquine and azithromycin for early treatment — ineffective medications with great potential to generate adverse effects. They also defendm the irresponsible cheating of the use of ozone therapy to combat Cvid.
Were it not for pressure from various organized sectors of society, including scientific and medical societies and the Brazilian press, in addition to political issues to avoid a greater role for the governor of the State of São Paulo in the vaccination campaign against C.ovid, the situation would be even worse. WWe have managed to combat many of the hoaxes created by the anti-vaccine movement, but it is difficult to combat nameeinformation coming from members of the official bodies of the Palácio do Planalto, like MS.
Brazil has had several problems in the logistics and distribution of vaccines and is fertile ground for the spread of vaccines.and another virus, o of fake news. Swe know that since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a lack of national campaigns to encourage vaccination and enlighten the Brazilian population by the MS, as the Immunization has never been a priority for the federal government. TWe see the President of the Republic and Ministers of State recommending guidelines of an ideological nature, in irresponsible episodes that threaten the health of the Brazilian population. As soon as Anvisa approved Pfizer's pediatric vaccine, the President of the Republic threatened to disclose the names of the Anvisa technicians who approved the vaccine. The Chief Executive also recently stated that the number of child deaths from Cvid-19 is insignificant in Brazil, as vaccines transmit the HIV virus and suggested that parents talk to “their neighbors” to decide whether or not to vaccinate their children. The current Minister of Health said that “child deaths are within a level that does not imply emergency decisions” and lied when he stated that there were around 4 mil deaths with proof of a causal relationship with the application of vaccines against Cvid-19. The MS's own survey does not show deaths caused by vaccines among the millions of vaccinated Brazilians.
TWe have to deal with measures of an official nature, such as the public hearing to discuss vaccination for children aged 5-11 years, organized by the MS on 04/01/2022, which placed respected scientists and doctors on an equal footing with charlatans who are against science, against scientific evidence and who defend an anti-vaccine political banner. You cannot put serious professionals on the same stage with pickaxes that only spread conspiracy theories. There is no space in the debate to define public policies for doctors and pseudoscientists who do not honor their diploma and are now in the ranks of anti-vaccines. These individuals may not have the opportunity to spread the virus of lies assassins at official events, to promote talkacies about medications that are not effective, at the same time em who blatantly lie about the efficacy and safety of vaccines and defend ozone therapy in the fight against Cvid. How can they attack vaccines against a disease that has killed around 6 million people worldwide, being almost 645 thousand in Brazil? This public hearing unprecedented and This unnecessary act served the purpose of scaring parents and guardians of children. After this depressing spectacle, on 05/01/2022, the MS decided that childhood vaccination would not be mandatory and that parents should sign a consent form authorizing the vaccination of their children.
Pediatric vaccines should be incorporated athe PNI, where they would enter the basic vaccination calendar for children and would be considered mandatory. To avoid being mandatory, the Ministry of Health included vaccines only in the National Vaccination Operationalization Plan against C.vid-19 (PNO). With this measure, the Ministry argues that it does not violate the Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA), which states that vaccination would be mandatory when recommended by health authorities. According to the ECA, every Brazilian child has the right to health and life-saving vaccines.
Other A regrettable episode was the measure of the anti-vaccine hotline, created by the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights (MMFDH), which released a technical note against the creation of the vaccination passport and against the mandatory childhood vaccination against Cvid-19. It was necessary for Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), to prohibit the expansion of the scope of Dial 100, “outside its institutional purposes”, to prevent the channel from receiving complaints from people opposed to vaccines. Use the MMFDH To create this technical note was yet another setback and an aberration that threatens the health of the Brazilian population. It is an ideological guideline and yet another regrettable episode of science denial. We cannot accept actions by the federal government to delay and disrupt the vaccination of our children.
On 20/01/2022, two State Ministers used public money to seek political benefits and electoral when visiting the family of a child in Lençóis Paulista, in an attempt to link the child's adverse effect with the vaccine. The President himself called his family, according to press reports. It was proven that the child had a congenital disease, which had nothing to do with the vaccine. They tried to convey the idea that the problem faced by the child was a reaction to vaccination against C.vid. This is their consumer dream, that a child dies causally related to one of the vaccines. As authorities of the Planalto Palace not visited or made calls to any family of the approximately 2 children and adolescents who were proven to have died as a result of Cvid.
Technical note no. 2/2022, signed by the Secretary of Science and Technology of the MS published in the Official Gazette of the Union on January 21, 2022, rejected the conclusions of the Working Group established by the MS itself, approved by the National Commission for the Incorporation of Technologies (Conitec) in the SUS. The scientific committee showed that the federal government's favorite drugs, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin do not work against Cvid. These experts represented scientific societies and developed guidelines for the treatment of Cvid-19, based on solid scientific knowledge and well-founded on the best internationally accepted information and recommendations. But the secretary refused the scientific evidence and distorted the note saying that chloroquine was safe and effective against Cvid-19 and no vaccines. Surreal!
On 14/02/2022, the Federal Senate hosted a nightmarish session with a parade of lies and a lot of misinformation about vaccines against C.vid. Some anti-science politicians and doctors have stated, without presenting any scientific evidence, that vaccines against C.vid-19 can cause cancer. They also disseminated false information, without scientific proof, casting doubt on the effectiveness and safety of vaccines against C.vid-19. It was another show of horrors and trickerys promoted in broad daylight, to please the denialist bases, with the participation of some of the biggest liars in the country, who spread fake news and murderous lies with impunity. Another huge disservice to the health and safety of the Brazilian population, all in the name of freedom of expression.
The effects caused by anti-vaccines
The anti-vaccine cowards, which include some politicians, journalists, doctors, religious leaders and pseudoscientists, are deceiving and frightening the population, defending an anti-science political banner. It is necessary cfight them! We cannot admit people dying from Cvid-19, having safe and effective vaccines that can prevent serious forms of the disease, hospitalizations and deaths. TWe must vehemently repudiate the attitude of health professionals who take advantage of the credibility of their profession to frivolously disseminate news without any scientific basis, with the aim of discouraging the vaccination of children.
We never need the judiciary to force parents to vaccinate their children. What, really, What we need is public policies to break the chain of transmission of the disease, such as mass testing, use of good quality masks (PFF2/N95, KN95) and information campaigns for the population respect non-pharmacological measures.
PWe need to vaccinate the population more quickly and everyone - aged 18 or over - must take both doses and the booster dose. Until now, the booster dose was applied in only 37,53% of the population aged 18 or over. We need to vaccinate our children and prevent a more dangerous variant of concern from emerging among as unvaccinated children. SWe know that the virus mutates less in vaccinated people, that the evolutionary capacity of the virus is lower in vaccinated people, who elas recover more quickly and spend less time with the virus.
Today we have a range of good, safe and effective vaccines against Cvid-19, but unfortunately we do not have vaccines against the virus of misinformation and fake news, nor against human ignorance and stupidity. It is urgent to defeat the anti-vaccine denialist discourse, which kills.
Childhood vaccination coverage should increase
ACvid-19 kills more than all other vaccine-preventable diseases and the impact is not limited to the acute phase of the disease. Children can be infected by the virus, may need hospitalization, have cases of pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (PMS) post-covid, may present Cvid with symptoms persisting for more than 8 weeks after recovery from the infection, they may have psychiatric disorders and irreversible respiratory, neurological and cardiovascular sequelae for life, and they may transmit the virus to other people with comorbidities who live in the same household. Cchildren can die!
We have to map unvaccinated children and carry out active searches and plan vaccination campaigns in schools. Despite all the false news, people are building confidence in vaccines. The scientific evidence for the benefits of vaccination is very robust. From the moment that more and more children are vaccinated, that undecided parents observe the benefits and that in fact no serious adverse events or deaths are occurring in vaccinated children, childhood vaccination coverage rates should increase. Parents are protected with vaccines, now they need to protect their children.
Those who don't took their children to get vaccinatedrque were infected by omicron have to wait for quarantine period. Many children were also infected during this period and must wait at least 30 days after infection to be vaccinated.
In such an unequal country, there are already many difficulties in accessing public health policies for the most vulnerable populations. That's itThis gigantic wave of fake news brought irreparable consequences. Even so, vaccines are showing their fundamental importance and are fulfilling their role very well. But low adherence to the booster dose and childhood vaccination can pose risks and compromise the fight against the pandemic. Getting vaccinated is a health duty and an act of citizenship and resistance.
