Coronavirus: Global situation
Brazilians demand hard-to-find Pfizer jabs even as death toll hits 500,000
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A graveyard for Covid-19 victims in Manaus city, in Brazil's Amazonas state. With Brazilians dying from the disease at the rate of about 2,000 a day, medical experts say that residents should take any Covid-19 vaccines available - even less effective ones - but people are spurning shots they believe to be substandard in favour of the Pfizer vaccine.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Follow topic:
SAO PAULO • Brazil hit the grim mark of half a million Covid-19 deaths on Saturday, a toll second only to the United States that shows few signs of easing. Yet residents are spurning vaccines they believe are substandard in favour of harder-to-find Pfizer shots.
In Sao Paulo, people demand the US pharmaceutical company's shots at public clinics and often walk out if none is available. Many vaccination centres are empty, and the few that have Pfizer have massive lines.
Ms Maressa Tavares, 29, could have had a Covid-19 jab two weeks ago. But at the request of her father, she is holding out for Pfizer.
"For me, it didn't make a lot of difference which one to take, but my father has very strong beliefs."
Such reluctance is hobbling a vaccination campaign already plagued by shortages and delays.
Failure to control Covid-19 would harm not only Brazilians, who are dying at the rate of about 2,000 a day, but also threaten a global resurgence of the disease if the nation becomes a breeding ground for new strains.
China's Sinovac and Britain's AstraZeneca account for about 96 per cent of shots available in Brazil; Pfizer accounts for 4 per cent.
While doctors say residents should get any shot available, Sinovac has a lower efficacy rate than other vaccines, and President Jair Bolsonaro bashed its "origin".
AstraZeneca saw its usage suffer worldwide thanks to rare blood clots and is still pending approval in the US.
Brazil has covered less than 30 per cent of its population with a first dose and just 12 per cent with two. Experts say that even less effective shots are well worth taking, but Mr Bolsonaro's mistrust is reflected among his supporters.
Ms Tavares' father Edilson Pessanha, 62, delayed his immunisation for about three months until he could get the US vaccine. "People prefer excellence," he said.
Fiocruz, an institution that monitors Covid-19, last week said the average age of deaths had dropped below 60 for the first time. Now, more than half of deaths occur in those aged between 20 and 59.
"It's absurd that we look at these numbers of daily deaths and think it's OK - this isn't OK," microbiologist Natalia Pasternak said.
BLOOMBERG
