After six months, Brazil still has not rolled out enough vaccines for children

Brazil’s Health Ministry has still not shipped enough Covid vaccines for municipalities to immunize all children aged 5 to 11, according to official data reviewed by The Brazilian Report. The vaccination of children began over six months ago, but vaccination rates are still a long way from those of adults.

There are roughly 20.4 million children aged 5 to 11 in Brazil, per official estimates. It would take 40.8 million doses for all of them to complete the two-shot vaccination program.

But according to the ministry’s latest report, only about 33.4 million doses of vaccines for children were shipped to states and municipalities. This includes 17.5 million doses of Pfizer’s pediatric vaccine and 15.9 million doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac earmarked for children.

Unlike Pfizer’s vaccine, CoronaVac is applied with the same dosage for all age groups. Brazil’s federal health regulator Anvisa authorized the latter’s emergency use for kids aged 6 to 11 in January 2022.

Pfizer informed The Brazilian Report it has supplied 22 million doses of its pediatric vaccine to the Ministry of Health, and added: “At this time, there are no...