Citizens chancing their arm with São Paulo’s zero-waste vaccine policy

“If the government hadn’t ignored Pfizer’s emails, we’d all be at home drinking beer by now, already vaccinated,” says Lara, a 24-year-old medical student who spent hours in line at a São Paulo immunization center this week, hoping to get her hands on a leftover vaccine. 

As things stand, Brazil’s biggest city is vaccinating people from risk groups, health professionals, teachers, transport workers, public security agents, and people aged 50 and over. 

But the rest of the population has the opportunity to vaccinate ahead of time, taking advantage of an authorized but loosely regulated practice in the state’s health centers, dishing out leftover shots at the end of the working day, often on a first-come first-served basis.

Nicknamed the xepa — the name given to leftover produce at the end of the day in fruit and vegetable markets, offered at extremely low prices to canny customers — the zero-waste system of handing out surplus vaccines has been in place since the beginning of immunization in São Paulo, back in January. But getting a hold of these shots is anything but straightforward.

The Brazilian Report visited three São Paulo vaccination centers this week to gain a first-hand perspective on the xepa system, speaking to the residents waiting in line.

“This is my fourth day in a row here. So far, I’ve come away empty-handed,” noted one man at a vaccination center in central São Paulo, which allows locals to form...