Number two in the Health Ministry during the administration of General Eduardo Pazuelo, Army Colonel Elsio Franco informed Pfizer, in an email sent in November of last year, that he was having trouble analyzing a laboratory proposal to sell vaccines against Covid-19 to the Brazilian government due to a virus. In the wallet’s computer network.
A copy of the email was sent to Covid’s CPI and obtained by TV Globo. In November, the Health Ministry said it found evidence that the wallet’s systems were the target of cyberattacks. There was a break and even a decrease in the databases in the folder. The secretary said he did not receive the attachments with the logistical data about the vaccine.
Elcio Franco was called to testify at CPI. The certificate was scheduled for next Thursday (27), but it was postponed because the former executive secretary of the Ministry of Health is recovering from infection with the Covid-19 virus.
“I inform you that due to a viral problem in our Ministry of Health network, we are facing a series of difficulties connecting to the network and opening emails, which has made it difficult or even to block access to the files sent so far. History, as well as its analysis,” writes Franco On November 10 last year.
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The day before, Pfizer had sent the ministry an email informing them of the preliminary data on the effectiveness of the vaccine.
“It gives me great pleasure to share the news that Pfizer has just released today. Data from the first analysis conducted in Phase 3 of our potential Covid-19 vaccine study indicates an efficacy rate higher than 90%, 7 days after the second dose, and this It means that protection is achieved after 28 days from the start of the vaccination, which consists of a schedule of two doses, and there was no serious safety concern, ”wrote one of the pharmacist managers.
There was also an updated proposal with a dosing quantity for Brazil and an additional quantity as a purchase option in the second half. The director warns in the email of the need for “urgent confirmation” by the Brazilian government of “the number of doses to be considered in the second half.”
He also warns that in the event of a delay, the doses intended for Brazil could be sold to other countries.
“Given today’s news, the demand for doses is increasing, and if we don’t respond soon, it is possible that other countries that are close to concluding an agreement will request more doses, which will include those now earmarked for Brazil in the first semester. So it’s urgent,” says the director Pfizer Inc.
On November 11, the day after Franco responded to Pfizer that he had computer problems at the Health Ministry, Pfizer Brazil’s president, Carlos Murillo, sent an updated offer to sell vaccines to the Brazilian government.
The call came after Murillo spoke to President Jair Bolsonaro and Economy Minister Paulo Guedes over the phone. The conversation was mediated by then Communications Minister Fabio Wagngarten.
In January 2021, Pfizer issued a note saying that on August 15, 2020, it offered the Brazilian government the possibility to purchase a batch of 70 million doses of its vaccine against Covid-19, with delivery scheduled for December 2020..
In testimony on Covid’s CPI, Wajngarten admitted that the message Pfizer sent went unanswered for two months.
Wajngarten admits the government left Pfizer’s two-month offer unanswered
On March 8, 2021, the new president of Pfizer in Brazil, Marta Diez, sent an email to the Brazilian government containing a new offer: 14 million doses in the second quarter of 2021 and 86 million doses in the third quarter.
He said, “We are working on detailing the monthly deliveries, which we will inform you about soon.”
In response, the Executive Secretariat of the Ministry of Health office informed the president of Pfizer in Brazil that “the aforementioned attachments were not contained in the letter”.
After that, the laboratory explained that “there were no documents attached”.
“The content covered was in the text of the email itself, in which we mention the timeline being evaluated for 2021, as well as a request for written confirmation that Brazil will accept the terms of the contract sent to the Ministry of Health on February 15th.”
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