Brazilian federalism and the protagonism of the states: an analysis of the PNI during the COVID-19 pandemic
federalism; state governments; national immunization program; COVID-19
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the adoption of COVID-19 immunization plans by Brazilian state entities has taken place. In this way, the first chapter discusses the literature on federalism and the role conferred on each entity, together highlighting the roles of the intermediate entities in health policies. The second chapter describes the national immunization programme, its structure and how it operated during the pandemic. The third chapter sets out the methodology chosen here, content analysis. Based on this, we analyzed plans that converge with the national plan for operationalizing immunization against COVID-19, then plans that diverge, and finally plans that play a leading role. In light of this and the literature discussed, we found, as the literature on state autonomy points out, a greater divergence between plans, especially in the information on the definition of priority groups and what system would be used to record those vaccinated and cases of adverse events following vaccination.