El desafío de la gestión y el Plan Nacional de Inmunizaciones contra el COVID-19 en Brasil

Abstract

The context of planning and execution of the National Immunization Plan for COVID-19 in the country took place in a scenario of health and political crisis, permeated by intense discussions and disagreements between the technical and management areas of the government. Thus, despite the successful experience of the Brazilian National Immunization Program in large vaccination campaigns, the current campaign against COVID-19 has been challenging. In this complex reality, negative aspects include the denialism of the country’s authorities regarding this serious disease; the insufficient and precarious offering and dissemination of information to the population; the circulation of false, non-scientific information about vaccines or the existence of early treatment propagated by the President of the Republic himself, generating misinformation; constant changes to the Plan; and the recommendation to use vaccine reserves for the second dose, causing delays in the vaccination schedule due to the unavailability of other vaccines in a timely manner. All these changes experienced along the way, and many of them without scientific subsidies, contributed to this serious panorama currently experienced in Brazil.