The national campaign “Mega Vaccination” against Covid-19 starts this Saturday (20). According to the Ministry of Health, there will be simultaneous mobilization in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Manaus, Curitiba, Salvador and Brasília to immunize the population.
The campaign runs until November 26th. During this period, vaccination posts across the country will be prepared to intensify immunization, according to the Ministry of Health. The objective is to encourage vaccination with the second dose and the booster dose.
According to the Ministry of Health, more than 21 million Brazilians have not taken the second dose of the vaccine. The guidance to this audience is to seek out health centers and complete the vaccination schedule.
São Paulo, with 4.1 million people, and Minas Gerais, with more than 2.2 million, are the states with the most Brazilians that did not return to vaccination posts to take the second dose.
Also according to the folder, more than 100 million people can boost immunity against Covid-19 with a third dose of the vaccine, now available to all adults over 18 years of age. The Ministry of Health forecasts that 12.5 million people take the booster dose in November and 2.9 million in December.
“We want to invite all Brazilians who did not take the second dose, as well as the booster dose, to look for Basic Health Units (UBS), vaccination rooms and the strategies used in each municipality”, said the minister of Health Marcelo Queiroga.
“These doses are available to the population, who will be better protected and will help Brazil overcome the health crisis and set an example with one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in the world, promoted entirely by the Unified Health System.”
According to the federal government, Queiroga will participate in the opening of the “Mega Vaccination” in Rio de Janeiro, which will take place in Cidade das Artes.
Third dose against Covid-19
After starting in September the application of the third dose of the vaccine against Covid-19 in the elderly and immunosuppressed, Brazil is expanding vaccination with an additional dose. Marcelo Queiroga announced that the government will apply a booster dose of the vaccine to the entire population over 18 years of age.
The application will be for those who took the second dose more than five months ago. In addition to the audience having been expanded, the interval between applications has decreased — as previously the minimum interval should have been six months.
The third dose should preferably be from Pfizer or a different vaccine from the one given in the first two. In the case of those who took two doses of Pfizer, the Ministry of Health said it is still deciding which additional dose will be applied.
Preliminary results from an Oxford University study of the booster dose, commissioned by the Ministry of Health, show that the heterologous regimen — the combination of different vaccines — significantly increases immunity.
According to the folder, the immunizers that will be used in the booster dose for everyone over 18 will be those from AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Janssen. The guideline, however, is that the booster is applied, preferably, with the Pfizer vaccine. In the absence of this immunizing agent, it can be applied to Astrazeneca or Janssen.
Janssen’s vaccine
The Ministry of Health updated the Janssen vaccine recommendation, previously applied as a single dose. From now on, a second dose of Janssen will be given eight weeks after the first.
After completing the vaccination cycle, a booster dose will be applied within the period of five months recommended by the ministry. In the United States, for example, Janssen’s immunization is also being reinforced.
The National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) questioned the Ministry of Health about the reinforcement of Janssen’s vaccine against Covid-19. The pharmacist itself was taken by surprise with the decision to apply the booster dose in Brazil.
In response to inquiries from Anvisa about the new immunization cycle in the country, using booster doses for adults over 18 years of age, the Ministry of Health stated that “the scientific updates presented reinforce the capacity of different vaccines against Covid-19 in to produce immunological memory, as well as to amplify the immunological response with a booster dose to the initial vaccination schedule of the population over 18 years old”.
Reference: CNN Brasil
