Lula will be vaccinated at the opening of a vaccination campaign – 02/24/2023 – Health

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) will be vaccinated against Covid-19 at the opening of the vaccination campaign this Monday (27).

The government’s intention is to show the return to normality and confidence in immunization, one of the main flags of the campaign for the presidency of the then PT candidate.

During the transition of government, Lula said that a priority would be to recover the PNI (National Immunization Program), which became a department in the Ministry of Health, and expand vaccination coverage.

The idea is to make a counterpoint to the management of his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro (PL). The former representative discouraged vaccination, stated several times that he would not take the doses against Covid-19 and kept his vaccination card confidential.

In the acute phase of the health crisis, Bolsonaro promoted crowds, advised against wearing masks and politicized vaccination, spreading false theories, like the episode in which he associated the vaccine with AIDS.

The intention of Lula and the Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, is to launch the National Movement for Vaccination. The initiative provides for actions to expand coverage of all vaccines available in the Unified Health System.

The Ministry of Health will start the schedule of the 2023 National Vaccination Program with vaccination against Covid-19 in the risk group.

For people at greater risk of developing severe forms of the disease, Pfizer’s bivalent vaccine will be used. This model is an immunizer update that uses the original strain of Sars-CoV-2 and the BA.1 omicron variant.

An intensification of the influenza campaign is also expected in April, before the arrival of winter, when low temperatures lead to an increase in cases of respiratory diseases.

There will also be a multi-vaccination action for polio and measles in schools, which should happen from May onwards.

STRATEGIES BY COUNTRY

In an interview with Sheetthe new secretary of Health and Environment Surveillance of the Ministry of Health, Ethel Maciel, said that the intention of the folder is to make different strategies by regions of the country to reach the specificities of each place.

In addition, the folder intends to trigger a wide communication scheme, with influencers, artists, politicians, religious leaders and teachers.

Ethel considered that 2023 will be a transition year to start improving vaccination coverage in the country. However, she says she believes it will take four years to achieve high immunization rates.

The secretary also said that there is the possibility of signing new contracts with Pfizer and the Butantan Institute and expanding the doses of the current contract with Fiocruz (Oswaldo Cruz Foundation).

There are also talks for Moderna’s vaccine to enter the portfolio of the Ministry of Health if it is approved by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) with the intention of accelerating vaccination.

“We intend to work with communication campaigns differentiated by region because we know that there are regional and cultural differences. The problem for low coverage is also different in relation to social classes. We have a decrease in coverage in the higher social classes. In the SUS user public , the biggest difficulty is operational —for example, the opening hours of the units”, he said.