Brazil Seeks To Halt Teen Vaccines After 1 Death, Adverse Events
NDTV
Sao Paulo state, the country's most populous, said it has already vaccinated nearly 2.5 million people under 18 years old.
Brazil's federal government wants to halt COVID-19 vaccinations for most adolescents, citing a death under investigation and adverse events after some 3.5 million teens have already been immunized, but several state governments vowed to press on.
At a news conference, Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga criticized states and cities for jumping the gun by vaccinating 12- to 17-year-olds without health issues that put them at risk of severe COVID-19, which he said was only supposed to start on Wednesday.
Queiroga said healthy adolescents who have already taken one shot should not take a second - effectively seeking to halt nationwide immunizations for teenagers.
Queiroga did not specify a reason for requesting a halt, but said there were 1,545 adverse events registered, with 93% of them in people who received COVID-19 shots other than the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine - the only one approved for minors in Brazil. He also said there had been one death registered, in the city of Sao Bernardo do Campo just outside the Sao Paulo state capital.
