Covid-19, Brazil seeks to facilitate legislation to purchase vaccines
Brazil, deregulation of vaccines approval. Gonzalo Vecina Neto: “Each one of us who can reduce the State’s difficulties and help fight inequality will be very welcome”
“The important thing is to have a safe and effective vaccine. Congress is going over the legislation it passed itself”, says the sanitary doctor and former director of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), Gonzalo Vecina Neto, regarding the provisional measures (MP) that aim to facilitate the process of purchase and registration of vaccines against Covid-19.
Brazil, MP 1003/2020’s approval will change vaccines legislation
MP 1003/2020, which is awaiting presidential sanction, proposes to expand the rule that determines the analysis of the importation and emergency use of vaccines or medicines already authorized by other health authorities.
If approved, the change forces automatic approval in 5 days, a deadline that makes it impossible to properly analyze, according to Anvisa.
“There is a clear threat to the institution, Congress and the President of the Republic are ignoring the existing legal system that Anvisa must guarantee the health security of products and services for Brazilians.
Anvisa had already agreed that a vaccine registered in the United States, Europe, Japan, China and Canada can go through a less bureaucratic registration here in Brazil.
Now, the MP proposes four other countries that are not in the same pattern ”, explains Vecina, who was one of the founders of the Health Surveillance Agency in Brazil.
On the other hand, MP 1026/2021, pending in the Chamber of Deputies, determines that purchases of insumies and immunisants can be made without bidding and before the vaccine is registered with the regulatory agency.
Based on this measure, the government of Brazil published on Friday (19) two extracts of exemption from bidding for the purchase of the Sputnik V and Covaxin vaccines
The document ensures R $ 693.6 million for the purchase of the Russian vaccine and R $ 1.614 billion for the Indian vaccine.
Another point proposed by members is permission to purchase vaccines by the private sector, conditional on the donation of part of the doses to the public health system.
Something that, in Vecina’s opinion, would further aggravate the inequalities in the country.
“How do I ensure equality for those who need to take the vaccine? I’m going to set criteria and create a queue.
An unequal country like Brazil has many invisible queues, we don’t even realize they exist.
This is a good thing that the pandemic has brought to us, we are seeing inequality better and we have to use our ability to build a better world by nullifying that inequality.
It is inadmissible from an ethical and moral point of view that rich people have access to vaccines rather than the general population.”
Regarding the “United for the Vaccine” initiative, led by businesswoman Luiza Trajano, the sanitary doctor says that “each one of us who can reduce the state’s difficulties by helping to fight inequality, will be very welcome.
But this is different from changing the vaccination order when you have money, this is unacceptable ”.
Since the beginning of the vaccination, Brazil has already applied the first dose of the immunizer to 5.8 million people and is the eighth country in absolute number of vaccinated.
Due to the lack of vaccines, however, about 6 capitals announced the suspension of vaccination in the last week.
Read Also:
Vaccine COVID-19, Russia Presents New Evidence Of The Effectiveness Of Sputnik V
Pandemic, Manaus Variant Spreads Across Brazil: P1 Present In 12 States