Brazil is going to receive the first dose of China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine this week, Dimas Covas, director of Brazil’s Bhutantan Institute biomedical center stated.
On 10 November, Brazilian health regulator Anvisa has halted the clinical trials of China’s Sinovac vaccine, after citing an adverse, serious event which eventually resulted in a volunteer’s death.
Dimas Covas said on Tuesday, “Brazil’s Butantan Institute biomedical center will receive the first dose of China’s Sinovac vaccine against COVID-19 this week.”
Covas informed the congressional committee monitoring Brazil’s COVID-19 response, “preliminary results of the trials Butantan is conducting in Brazil indicate the vaccine, called CoronaVac, has an excellent safety profile.”
He further added, “Butantan expects to have 46 million doses ready in January pending approval of the vaccine by Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa.”
Covas said that about 10,000 volunteers have already received about 19,000 shots of the two-dose vaccine, and another 2,000 people still have to be included in the trials which will happen at 16 centers linked to Brazilian universities.
Butantan and Anvisa have sent experts to China where they are in a two-week quarantine before they can visit vaccine facilities, they said.
On 22 October, Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro, cast doubt on SinoVac prospective effectiveness. He further added that the Brazilians would not be used as guinea pigs.
Mr Bolsonaro has often expressed mistrust of China, particularly on the campaign trail in 2018, although he has softened his rhetoric somewhat in office. Sao Paulo state Gov. Doria has become a political rival and an outspoken critic of the president’s pandemic response.
