MP-AM should report mayors who fail to apply vaccine against Covid-19 in children

Marcela Leiros – from Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The Public Ministry of Amazonas (MP-AM) intends to take legal action against mayors who fail to vaccinate children, aged between 5 and 11 years, against Covid-19. The information was discussed the program “Good Night, Amazon”, the FM Radio Onda Digital, on Tuesday, 8. The institution also issued a recommendation that the state prosecutors “act to ensure the right to vaccination against Covid-19 for adolescents and children” in the municipalities.

In an interview to the program, the prosecutor Silvana Nobre de Lima Cabral confirmed the possibility of denouncing the mayors who refuse to guarantee this right, but reinforced that the priority is dialogue and awareness.

“As our attorney general releases and signs a recommendation of this size, he is including all these issues as institutional goals. This means that all members will work equally this situation, whether in the city of Manaus or in other municipalities of our state, because we want to preserve this right to health and right to education”, explained the prosecutor.

Watch the interview excerpt:

Recommendation

Signed the last day 3 by the Attorney General Alberto Rodrigues do Nascimento Júnior and published in the Official Journal of MP-AM, the recommendation also advises prosecutors that “establish dialogue with the folders of health, education and social assistance and monitor all implementation planning of the national immunization policy against Covid-19 that must reach children and adolescents who are inside and outside the school environment”.

Another point refers to the active search for unvaccinated children and adolescents, which must be done through integrated actions of the Health, Education, and Social Assistance Secretariats, with the participation of the Specialized Social Assistance Reference Center (Creas), the Social Assistance Reference Center (Cras), the Guardianship Councils, and community health agents.

Besides addressing the vaccination, the recommendation is still directed to education, advising that the prosecutors charge the mandatory presentation of the vaccination card upon enrollment, re-enrollment and return to school and daycare environment, “without, however, impediments to the presence of unvaccinated children in the school environment.

The Public Ministry also recommends that, once the appropriate measures have been adopted, the return to school should be fully in person from the beginning of the school calendar.

Parental impediment

Already considering the possibility of the impediment, by parents, that children in this age group are vaccinated, the MP-AM recalled that the Extraordinary Appeal 1.267.879/SP, the Supreme Court (STF), relying on the “best interests of the child,” “does not allow parents, invoking philosophical conviction, put at risk the health of their children” when the health authority understands that vaccination is a measure of child health protection and prevention.

The CENARIUM asked the Amazon Association of Municipalities (AAM), through the mayor of Manaquiri and the president of the association, Jair Souto, about the position of the institution regarding the possibility of complaint and what actions are being promoted to accelerate the vaccination of children between 5 and 11 years, but did not get back until the publication of this story.

Check out the recommendation in full: