Vaccination project in public schools goes to the Senate plenary

The bill that aims to establish the National Vaccination Program in Public Schools, PL 826/2019, was approved this Tuesday (20) by the Education Committee (CE) of the Federal Senate. The proposal, authored by the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), now goes for analysis in the plenary. Opposition senators tried to postpone the vote to expand the debate on the issue.

The text foresees the expansion of vaccination coverage of the population, by creating the National Vaccination Program in Public Schools, within which, annually, after the start of the flu vaccination campaign, local health teams will go to public schools to vaccinate children. children enrolled in kindergarten and primary education, offering the vaccines provided for each age.

According to the approved text, schools and health units must announce in advance the dates on which the campaign will take place, instructing students to bring their vaccination cards. Although it is not mandatory for them, private institutions that wish can join the program. The project foresees that children, young people and adults in the community will also be able to be vaccinated if vaccines are available.

After the campaign, those responsible for children who have not been vaccinated at their schools will have 30 days to take them to health units to be immunized. After this period, health teams will be able to make home visits to families to make them aware of the importance of immunization. Nowhere in the project, as the rapporteur highlighted, does the text talk about imposing mandatory vaccination.

When defending the project, senator Marcelo Castro highlighted data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), which showed a 20% drop in vaccination coverage in Brazil. For him, PL 826/2019 can help reverse this scenario.

“Vaccination in Brazil began to fall, to decline from 2014 to now and has been declining year after year”, said the rapporteur, arguing that the measure will boost immunization in the country, as the school is a central place in the lives of children and adolescents and involves a large part of communities.

Opposition demands more debate

Opposition senators tried to postpone the vote on the project in the Education Committee and demanded more debate on the matter.

During the discussion, they even pointed out the holding of a debate session on the topic in the Senate Plenary, which is scheduled for next Monday (26).

The postponement was defended by senators Eduardo Girão (Novo-CE), Magno Malta (PL-ES), Marcos Rogério (PL-RO) and Marcos Pontes (PL-SP). Despite being in favor of vaccines, they reinforced their concern about the mandatory vaccination of children from four years of age against Covid-19. For them, it is necessary to wait for scientific analyzes on all the effects of this vaccine.

“Brazil is the only country in the world that is demanding mandatory Covid vaccination for children. And it is very strange that this requirement does not exist throughout the world”, highlighted Senator Eduardo Girão.

For Senator Astronauta Marcos Pontes (PL-SP), despite the importance and efficiency of vaccines against Covid-19 in reducing deaths and ending the pandemic, it would be interesting to advance discussions around scientific evidence on the safety of the vaccine. .

“Now we have time for, after, in quotation marks, the pandemic, time for scientists to analyze all this, correct possible problems and then we will have a fully developed vaccine, just like the polio vaccine, like other vaccines important and without a doubt it will be a very important item in our vaccine framework”, he said.

Universalization

Another opposing point pointed out by oppositionists is that the project could be the target of legal challenge as it differentiates the targets of the campaign, by forcing the participation of public schools, while private schools would have the option of joining or not.

In the opinion of Senator Marcos Rogério, this is a “jabuticaba that does not fit into our legal framework” since the text, according to him, requires the promotion of the “imposition of vaccination” only in public schools. In his interpretation, the measure does not respect the principle of the universal right to vaccination.

“In my opinion, [o projeto] goes beyond the limits in imposing obligations on parents when raising their children. And here this argument increases when I limit the obligation to the child of the poor, and the option to the child of the rich,” he said.

The rapporteur, however, reinforced that even after the campaign promoted by the school, if any child still remains unvaccinated, the text does not impose any mandatory measure that requires their immunization.

“This project is not from the government, it has nothing to do with the government, it is from an anti-government deputy and is not forcing anyone to get vaccinated. Here is a vaccination campaign. What are you talking about here? The thing is, there is an obligation for the poor to be vaccinated and the rich to vaccinate if they want. Neither the poor nor the rich are being forced to be vaccinated in this project”, explained Marcelo Castro.

*With information from Agência Senado