BRASILIA (Reuters) - The head of Brazil's health regulator Anvisa has asked the country's vaccine-skeptic President Jair Bolsonaro to retract statements he made criticizing the agency for authorizing the vaccination of children against COVID-19.
In a letter to Bolsonaro made public late Saturday, retired rear admiral Antonio Barra Torres asked the president to back up his statement that there were undisclosed "interests" behind the vaccine decision or else retract his words.
Bolsonaro criticized Anvisa on Thursday for approving the use for children aged 5 to 11 years of the pediatric vaccine made by Pfizer Inc, saying that he had not heard of children dying of COVID-19.
"What is behind this? What are the interests of vaccine maniacs?" Bolsonaro stated in a radio interview.
Bolsonaro, a far-right leader who has bragged about not being vaccinated himself and has consistently cast doubt on the efficacy and safety of coronavirus vaccines, said the shots could have side effects on kids, but gave no evidence.
Political Cartoons on World Leaders
(Steve Breen/Creators)
(Joey Weatherford/Tribune Content Agency)
Anvisa and health regulators around the world have found that COVID-19 vaccines are safe for those from age 5 and up. According to the council of state health secretaries, at least 300 children aged 5 to 11 have died in Brazil from COVID-19.
The president's office did not respond to a request for comment on the letter, which came just days after another divergence between Bolsonaro and the military.
Brazil's Army differed from the president last week on how to deal with COVID-19. It ordered soldiers to get vaccinated, wear masks and maintain social distance, and warned them against spreading false news about the pandemic.
Escalating demand for Covid-19 tests is prompting some laboratories to ration access, giving priority to people with symptoms or other health concerns as the Omicron variant quickly spreads.
Triaging who is eligible for Covid-19 tests can help ensure that patients who need a test the most get results fast enough to isolate or get treatment, pathologists and public-health experts say. The strategy, however, risks perpetuating the virus’s spread if some people get turned away from testing altogether.
“What we don’t want is for people to not be able to get tested in the community and then show up at the ER to get testing,” said Melissa Miller, director of the University of North Carolina’s microbiology lab. “But there is a maximum amount that you can collect in a day.”
Melissa Miller, director of the University of North Carolina’s microbiology lab.
UNC is restricting tests to people with Covid-19 symptoms, employees and patients who need a test before surgeries. Dr. Miller said UNC is running about 1,200 tests a day and returning results to patients within 24 hours. About a third of the tests are coming back positive, she said.
The University of Washington temporarily closed some of its testing sites on Tuesday and is giving appointment priority to people with Covid-19 symptoms or a known exposure. The turnaround time for test results had stretched past two days, beyond the university’s 24-hour goal, said Geoffrey Baird, UW Medicine’s acting chair of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, at a Dec. 30 media briefing.
You must be logged in to post a comment.