The left-wing government of Brazil has warned that they may withhold family welfare payments if parents refuse to have their children receive the COVID-19 vaccine once a year.
The move comes as COVID-19 vaccines are to be added to the country’s National Immunisation Program (PNI).
Ethel Maciel, the country’s Secretary of Health and Environment Surveillance, said, “It is an important change, in line with the World Health Organization [WHO], in which the vaccine against COVID-19 now incorporates our National Immunization Program.”
“During the pandemic, a parallel program was created to operationalize the vaccine against Covid-19, outside of our national program. What we did this year was to bring the vaccine against covid-19 into the National Immunization Program. The vaccine is now recommended in the children’s calendar. For all children born or living in Brazil, aged between 6 months and under 5 years of age, the vaccine becomes mandatory in the vaccination calendar.”
“Furthermore, in line with the recent World Health Organization recommendation, we are now incorporating the dose into the annual vaccination calendar for priority groups,” Maciel added. “Here in Brazil, we have slightly expanded the group that the WHO recommends, which is more restricted. We will, in the 2024 campaign, maintain the same groups as in 2023. These are the two fundamental changes.”
American Faith reported that a study found that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine performs poorly in children under the age of five.
According to the study, the estimated effectiveness of the three-series vaccines was 12%.
The vaccine was said to be about 44% effective if the children received two doses.
