11/10/2020 2:50 PM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 11/10/2020 3:04 PM
Shortly after the surprise suspension of clinical trials of a Chinese vaccine against the coronavirus in Brazil due to the death of a volunteer,
the true cause of death
was known on Tuesday
.
It was the press of that country that confirmed that the death of the 33-year-old man was a suicide.
The National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) had temporarily suspended trials of the CoronaVac vaccine on Monday due to a "
serious adverse event
."
From the Butantan Institute of São Paulo, an institution that collaborates in the development of this vaccine in Brazil, they showed their surprise at this decision and clarified that the death was not related to their participation in the trials.
A laboratory in Beijing where they work on the Coronavac vaccine.
AP Photo
The Government of São Paulo expressed itself on Tuesday along the same lines and had insisted that it was "impossible" to relate the two events.
The director of the Butantan Institute, Divas Covas, pointed out that it is "
a death not related to the vaccine
", therefore, he defended, "there is no reason for the interruption of the clinical study."
"Anvisa was informed of a death, not of an adverse effect. These are different matters," Covas said during a dialogue for Brazilian television, picked up by various media in the country.
The director of the Butantan Institute, Divas Covas AP Photo
And he added: "We have even been a little surprised by this decision because it is a death that is not related to the vaccine. That is, there are more than 10,000 volunteers, deaths can occur."
With the interruption of clinical trials, which include
9,000 volunteers in Brazil
, no new person will be able to be vaccinated.
Anvisa did not release further details about the suspension of the Coronavac tests, which is in phase 3 of clinical trials in Brazil, Turkey, Bangladesh and Indonesia, in addition to China, to respect the "principles of confidentiality, human dignity and protection of participants ".
The Coronavac is not among those that are being tested in Argentina.
The governor of San Pablo, Joao Doria.
Photo: EFE
The vaccine developed by Sinovac was being tested in Brazil in association with the Butantan Institute, one of the main medical research centers in South America located in São Paulo, the most populated and industrialized state in the country.
This Monday, Doria had informed in a press conference that the first batch of 120,000 imported doses of Coronavac was expected to arrive in São Paulo on November 20 from China.
With information from DPA
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