Augustin Geist and Gram Slattery

RIO DE JANEIRO/BUENOS AIRES – South America was the ground zero for COVID-19 infighting throughout most of 2020 and 2021.

Oxygen ran low in Peru. The night was long and hard in Sao Paulo (Brazil) as gravediggers worked. In Guayaquil (Ecuador), bodies were placed in shipping containers.

Brazil was the most populous country in Latin America. Its COVID-19 death rate rose to second in the world. Peru and Argentina had the highest death rates per capita.

However, in spite of poor health care and lower incomes than the United States or Europe, this region emerged surprise winner in the vaccine race.

According to data from the Our World in Data, South America has 63.3% of its population inoculated. This is according to official statistics collected by governments around the globe.

Europe is second at 60.7%. Only 8.8% have completed full vaccines in Africa.

The death and infection rates are down compared with the middle of last year, when almost half the global deaths were due to infections and infected people living in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is Europe now that contagion, thanks to the Omicron variation spreading rapidly, is recovering.

The rapid vaccination drive can be attributed to many factors, according to epidemiologists. The most significant factor, according to Epidemiologists, is decades of inoculation campaigns which have been successful and created trust within the community.

Paulo Lotufo is an epidemiologist from the University of Sao Paulo. He said that Brazil’s successful vaccine drives over the last 50 years against smallpox/meningitis and measles have shown that people don’t object to vaccinations.

According to authorities, more than 99% of adults in some cities (including Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo) have had at least one dose. Brazilians are proud to claim that their nation is “cultura vacinacao,” which means “vaccine culture.”

It is possible to do the same for other regions in the area, who have also launched massive inoculation campaigns in response to traumatic viral disease epidemics.

Leda Guzzi (a Buenos Aires-based expert in infectious diseases) said that this confidence was built over many years and is based upon the numerous vaccinations we have given.

It is also important to communicate effectively about public health, according to Albert Ko, who is a professor at Yale School of Public Health, and collaborates with researchers at Rio de Janeiro’s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.

In Brazil, for instance, a mascot resembling a docile white droplet, known as “Zé Gotinha,” has been heavily used by health officials to promote the vaccine, even as President Jair Bolsonaro has himself declined to be jabbed.

MC Fioti, baile funk’s star released a viral video earlier this year featuring a modified version one of his songs in collaboration with Butantan biomedical Institute in Sao Paulo promoting vaccine.

STORM CLOUDS GATHER

However, the region is not far away, especially as Omicron spreads around the world.

The region is still below the level of protection that scientists recommend for mass vaccinations, despite a remarkable 63.3% population being vaccinated. Omicron continues to rage in large areas of Europe despite comparable levels of immunization.

Children’s vaccination rates vary greatly from one country to the next in Latin America. Authorities in Brazil and Mexico are slow to give shots to minors.

A potential concern is also the use of vaccines.

Numerous countries such as Brazil, Chile and Uruguay relied heavily upon Coronavac (a vaccine manufactured by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd), especially during the initial phases of their vaccination campaigns.

Although the vaccine has been credited for getting people in the arms fast, it is not as effective as its counterparts. At least one preliminary study suggests that the vaccine may not have antibodies to the Omicron variant. The World Health Organization (WHO), in December 2012, recommended that Sinovac recipients and all “inactivated vaccines” be boosted.

According to epidemiologists, Omicron might be better at avoiding immunity from COVID-19 previous infections. This could prove to be a problem in the same region that the virus decimated entire communities in the earlier phases of the pandemic.

Ko, the Yale epidemiologist said, “Many people infected especially in Brazil,” People who have been infected previously are now infected by this virus.