South America, along with the US, was one of the hot spots in the pandemic. Now it is the region with the most vaccinated people. How did South America turn around?
Zé Gotinha has a droplet for a head and the logo of Brazil’s public health system on the chest.
The mascot has been promoting vaccinations for more than 30 years. Once against polio, today against the corona virus. Vaccination has a long tradition in the largest country in Latin America. “We were already queuing as children to be vaccinated,” says Daniele Moura from Rio de Janeiro of the German Press Agency. Now she has taken her children for vaccinations.
“We all got the corona vaccination, I got the three doses, the children two.” It is all the more difficult for Moura to accept that her father died in connection with Covid-19 before the vaccination campaign started in Brazil. Around 660,000 people died in Brazil in connection with Covid-19 – there are only more corona deaths in the USA. In terms of population, no other country in the world has had as many corona deaths as Peru.
In Brazil, the health system together
Bodies in the streets of Ecuador, a lack of oxygen in Peru, mass graves in São Paulo, Brazil – South America was one of the corona hotspots. At the peak of the pandemic a year ago, Brazil’s healthcare system collapsed. South America is now the region with the most vaccinated people, as confirmed by the dpa statistics portal Our World in Data. 72.85 percent are completely vaccinated in South America, 67.45 percent in Asia, 65.29 percent in Europe and 62.65 percent in North America (as of April 3).
In Chile, which was now considered the world champion in vaccination, more than 90 percent of the people are now fully vaccinated – over 80 percent have even received a booster shot. The Chilean health authorities vaccinated the population faster than in almost any other country in the world.
Just the terrible experience of the pandemic is one reason that many in South America are eagerly awaiting vaccines. It had a stronger effect than conspiracy theories and fake news like Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who downplayed Corona and cast doubt on the point of vaccinations.
In Argentina and Brazil, vaccination campaigns got off to a slow start because governments had problems obtaining enough vaccine or were delaying procurement. Once the campaigns gained momentum, the countries of the region were able to rely on a deep-rooted vaccination culture and well-established vaccination structures. Medical teams traveled deep into the Amazon and remote Andean villages to vaccinate residents.
Vaccinations are free
From an early age, Brazilians and Argentines are used to being vaccinated against numerous diseases: for example, children cannot go to school without a series of compulsory vaccinations. Up to adulthood, a total of 18 vaccinations are mandatory in Argentina and 19 in Brazil, including those against hepatitis A and B, tuberculosis, meningitis, measles, chickenpox, tetanus and yellow fever.
Moura’s daughter Malu, now twelve, had already received the first vaccinations at a health post in Rio when she was seven days old. “We have arranged to meet other mothers and are going together,” says Moura, showing Malus’ vaccination card with a total of more than 40 doses against various diseases. “This is how a vaccination culture is created.” There is hardly any vaccine skepticism.
The vaccinations are free and are given at health posts, in hospitals and in special vaccination offices. Like Chile, other South American countries are also relying on a fairly low-threshold vaccination campaign without complicated appointments in the corona pandemic – also in churches, football stadiums and vaccination streets. The Sambodrome in Rio, for example, became a drive-thru vaccination center.
Thanks to science
So far, vaccination against Covid-19 is not mandatory in either Argentina or Brazil. However, MPs have already introduced an initiative in the Argentine Congress to make the corona vaccination mandatory and to include it in the national vaccination plan. In Brazil, the pressure is gentle: Proof of vaccination is required for many public facilities and events.
“Brazil has shown, even against the president, that it is possible to fight the pandemic with vaccination,” says Moura. “We owe the fact that we are here today and are healthy to science.” Carnival is now coming up in Rio, the parades that have been postponed due to Corona will take place on April 21 – and Brazil has the lowest corona numbers since the beginning of the pandemic. Moura hopes it stays that way. “If a new wave comes, it would hit a lot less because so many are vaccinated.”
Source: Stern
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