Just one COVID-19 patient was in critical condition at the Dr Geraldo Cesar Reis clinic in Serrana, a city of almost 46,000 in Sao Paulo state’s countryside. The 63-year-old woman rejected the vaccine that was offered to every adult resident of Serrana as part of a trial.
Doctors have said the woman was awaiting one of Pfizer’s shots, which remain scarce in Brazil.
However, she is an outlier there. Most adults rolled up their sleeves when offered the vaccine made by the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac, and the experiment has transformed the community into an oasis of near normalcy in a country where many communities continue to suffer.
Photo: Bloomberg
Doctors who treated COVID-19 in Serrana have seen their patient loads evaporate. They now help colleagues with other diseases and have started eating lunch at home.
Life has returned to the streets: Neighbors chat and families have weekend barbecues. Outsiders who previously had no reason to set foot in Serrana are arriving for haircuts and restaurant outings.
“We’re now as full as we used to be,” Rogerio Silva, a staffer at a store for cheap refreshments and snacks, said in an interview. “Weeks ago, people wouldn’t form a line in here, wouldn’t eat in and I wouldn’t let them use the bathroom. Now it’s back.”
The success story emerged as other population centers keep struggling with the coronavirus, enduring rising infections and new government-imposed restrictions.
Meanwhile, the vaccine appeared headed for wider use.
The WHO on Tuesday granted emergency use authorization to the Sinovac shot for people 18 or over, the second such authorization it has granted to a Chinese company.
The experiment known as “Project S” lasted four months and tested the Sinovac shot in real-world conditions.
The preliminary results made public on Monday suggest that the pandemic can be controlled if three-quarters of the population is fully vaccinated with Sinovac, said Ricardo Palacios, a director at the state’s Butantan Institute and coordinator of the study, which was not peer-reviewed.
“The most important result was understanding that we can control the pandemic even without vaccinating the entire population,” Palacios said.
The results offer hope to hundreds of millions of people, especially in developing nations. Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Zimbabwe and others are likewise reliant on the Chinese shot, which is cheaper than vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.
The city’s population was split into four geographic areas regardless of age and gender, and most adults received two shots by the end of April.
Results released on Monday showed that the pandemic was controlled after three of the areas had been vaccinated. It was not clear if vaccine uptake was the same in each area.
Serrana saw vast improvements: Deaths fell by 95 percent, hospitalizations by 86 percent and symptomatic cases by 80 percent.
The project “shows the protection exists and that the vaccine is effective. No doubt,” said Gonzalo Vecina, one of the founders of Brazil’s health regulator and a medical school professor.
The spread of the virus in Serrana slowed while neighboring communities, such as Ribeirao Preto, just 19km west, saw COVID-19 cases surge. The upswing was largely blamed on more contagious variants.
Hospitals in Ribeirao Preto are so full of COVID-19 patients that the mayor last week imposed strict shutdown measures, including halting public transportation and limiting hours for the city’s 700,000 residents to buy groceries.
Some would wait months for their vaccines. Almost all shops are closed, and 95 percent of intensive care unit beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
Just months ago, it was Serrana struggling to cope, said Joao Antonio Madalosso Jr, a physician.
For every patient who recovered in the first three months of this year, two more arrived in bad shape, he said.
“Then, by the end of January, we heard this project was coming to Serrana, and calmness set in, little by little,” said Madalosso, 32, as he pointed at the empty seats of the hospital’s COVID-19 ward. “Just look at this. This is much calmer than Ribeirao Preto and the entire region. The vaccine is no cure, but it is the solution to transform this into a light flu so people can carry on.”
READINESS: According to a survey of 2,000 people, 86 percent of Swedes believe the country is worth defending in the event of a military attack Swedes are stocking up on food items in case of war, as more conflict in Europe no longer feels like a distant possibility, and authorities encourage measures to boost readiness. At a civil preparedness fair in southwest Stockholm, 71-year-old Sirkka Petrykowska said that she is taking the prospect of hostilities seriously and preparing as much as she can. “I have bought a camping stove. I have taken a course on preservation in an old-fashioned way, where you can preserve vegetables, meat and fruit that lasts for 30 years without a refrigerator,” Petrykowska said. “I’ve set aside blankets for warmth, I
FRUSTRATIONS: One in seven youths in China and Indonesia are unemployed, and many in the region are stuck in low-productivity jobs, the World Bank said Young people across Asia are struggling to find good jobs, with many stuck in low-productivity work that the World Bank said could strain social stability as frustrations fuel a global wave of youth-led protests. The bank highlighted a persistent gap between younger and more experienced workers across several Asian economies in a regional economic update released yesterday, noting that one in seven young people in China and Indonesia are unemployed. The share of people now vulnerable to falling into poverty is now larger than the middle class in most countries, it said. “The employment rate is generally high, but the young struggle to
ENERGY SHIFT: A report by Ember suggests it is possible for the world to wean off polluting sources of power, such as coal and gas, even as demand for electricity surges Worldwide solar and wind power generation has outpaced electricity demand this year, and for the first time on record, renewable energies combined generated more power than coal, a new analysis said. Global solar generation grew by a record 31 percent in the first half of the year, while wind generation grew 7.7 percent, according to the report by the energy think tank Ember, which was released after midnight yesterday. Solar and wind generation combined grew by more than 400 terawatt hours, which was more than the increase in overall global demand during the same period, it said. The findings suggest it is
IN THE AIR: With no compromise on the budget in sight, more air traffic controllers are calling in sick, which has led to an estimated 13,000 flight delays, the FAA said Concerns over flight delays and missed paychecks due to the US government shutdown escalated on Wednesday, as senators rejected yet another bid to end the standoff. Democrats voted for a sixth time to block a Republican stopgap funding measure to reopen government departments, keeping much of the federal workforce home or working without pay. With the shutdown in its eighth day, lines at airports were expected to grow amid increased absenteeism among security and safety staff at some of the country’s busiest hubs. Air traffic controllers — seen as “essential” public servants — are kept at work during government shutdowns, but higher numbers
RSS