Parents should decide whether or not their children should be vaccinated against Covid, says expert

The Federal Supreme Court (STF) suspended the decisions of mayors of 20 municipalities in Santa Catarina that removed the obligation to present proof of Covid-19 vaccination for school registrations. According to Paulo Liporaci, a lawyer specializing in Public Law, mandating the vaccination of children in the current epidemiological context has already become unjustifiable.

For him, there are no longer reasonable reasons for the State to bar the presence of children who are not vaccinated against Covid. The circumstances are quite different from those of years ago, and it should be up to parents alone to decide whether or not to vaccinate their children, as is the case with the dengue and H1N1 vaccines.

Brazil is the only country that maintains mandatory vaccination of children against Covid-19, as shown by People’s Gazette. An article published in July 2023 by the magazine Nature Human Behavior showed that no other country requires the immunization of children against the disease. Only Costa Rica, Ecuador and Indonesia had similar standards, but the standards are no longer in force.

In 2021, the STF considered vaccines present in the National Immunization Program (PNI) mandatory. This year, the Lula government included the Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 6 months to 5 years in the PNI.

PSOL was responsible for the request to suspend municipal decrees. The party also asked the Court that managers “refrain from promoting any acts that could hinder the execution of the National Immunization Program”. But minister Cristiano Zanin only accepted the suspension of the decrees. Jorginho Mello (PL), governor of Santa Catarina, was also summoned. The governor released a video about the vaccine not being mandatory. “Here in Santa Catarina, the vaccine is not mandatory. It is on the conscience of every person from Santa Catarina to exercise their right as a citizen and resolve it”, said Mello.

“Whether it is to present the vaccination card as a whole or for a specific vaccine, in my point of view, it is not legal to impede access to education, whether due to an informed decision on the part of the parents or even due to an omission”, says Liporaci. He explains that the requirement to present a vaccination card for school registration should be within the scope of the stimulus, accompanied by a recommendation to parents about the importance of vaccination.

For lawyer, parents should decide on immunization against Covid-19

According to Zanin’s decision, vaccination is not “an eminently individual issue, which would be affected by the decision of each family unit, but rather the general duty of protection that belongs to everyone, especially the State”. The minister also stated that municipalities cannot create rules contrary to the Covid-19 requirement, as it is included in the PNI. Despite this, by mandating the immunization of children against Covid, the Ministry of Health contradicted scientific evidence.

“Each father and mother, together with their trusted doctor, should decide on this issue of immunization. Ultimately, it’s a question of individual freedom”, adds Liporaci. The lawyer also recalls that several pharmaceutical companies had the production of their immunizers against Covid-19 discontinued – even though, at the beginning of the pandemic, the effectiveness of the discontinued immunizers had been widely propagated.

The scientific community has still made discoveries about the technique used in immunizations against Covid. An example is the study recently published by Naturein which it was pointed out that mRNA vaccines generate unintended products in the body.

“In a context of the absence of a considerable degree of consensus regarding the great effectiveness of immunization agents and the absence of long-term risks arising from vaccination against Covid-19, the exercise of individual freedoms by the population must be honored”, he reinforces. Liporaci believes that vaccination against Covid should be based on the same logic as immunization against dengue and H1N1, with parents having their individual freedoms respected.

Moraes reacts to Zema’s statement about vaccinating children against Covid-19

On the 4th, the governor of Minas Gerais, Romeu Zema (Novo), published a video with a proposal similar to Mello’s. Alongside senator Cleitinho (PL-MG) and federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG), Zema said that “here in Minas, every student, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated or not, will have access to schools”. The Public Ministry of Minas Gerais (MPMG) stated in a note that it will defend the mandatory immunization of vaccines that have been included in the PNI.

Minister Alexandre de Moraes gave Zema five days to explain the decision not to charge proof of vaccination for school registration. Moraes’ decision also came after a request from PSOL against the governor.

Deputies presented a project to suspend the inclusion of the Covid-19 vaccine in the PNI

In December 2023, federal deputies Bia Kicis (PL-DF) and Delegate Paulo Bilynskyj (PL-SP) presented a draft legislative decree to suspend the technical note that incorporates the Covid-19 vaccine into the National Vaccination Calendar. Since then, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), has not dispatched the document. The legislative recess, which runs from December to February, also influenced the process to come to a standstill.

“In meetings with opposition parliamentarians, we decided that we will work with the leaders and Lira to guide the draft legislative decree that suspends the inclusion of the Covid vaccine in the PNI”, informed Kicis. In addition to this, the parliamentarian informed that she will also work to advance other proposals with a similar objective. “This topic is one of the most important at the moment,” she concluded.