An Entire City Is Getting Vaccinated

Brazil is only the second country worldwide to surpass 600,000 COVID deaths, behind the United States with 713,000, but one city in the South American nation is about to push back on the virus in a big way. Pfizer says it will be teaming up with health officials and various institutions to vaccinate all residents 12 and over in Toledo, located in the western part of Parana state, so that it can study the effectiveness and safety of its COVID vaccine in a "real-world scenario," reports the New York Times. Pfizer notes that after all eligible participants have gotten their shots, it will keep tabs on them for one year to see how the vaccine does over the long haul and against any variants.

"Here we believe in science, and we lament the almost 600,000 deaths from COVID-19 in Brazil," Toledo Mayor Beto Lunitti said in announcing the study. It shouldn't be a hard sell to carry out the vaccination part of the experiment in the city of 143,000, which will involve local health authorities, a hospital, and a government university, assisted by the nation's national vaccine program. Reuters notes that skepticism over the vaccine is low in Toledo, where 98% of the eligible population has had at least one shot of either the Pfizer, AstraZeneca, or Sinovac vaccine. About 56% are fully vaccinated.

A similar experiment was carried out over several months this past winter and spring in the Brazilian town of Serrana, in Sao Paulo state, where nearly every adult in the town of 45,000 received the Sinovac vaccine. Brazil's Butantan Institute, a biological research hub, reported before the summer that symptomatic cases, hospitalizations, and deaths—which experienced a 95% drop—fell drastically after the mass vaccination, returning the town to "near normal," per the AP. While the Times notes that Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been "ambivalent" on vaccines to fight COVID, Reuters reports that more than 70% of the country's residents have received at least one dose of vaccine. The US, for context, is at 65%. (More Pfizer stories.)