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Although President Iván Duque said that the immunization plan should be exempt from demagoguery, the truth is that it has been politicized. The quantity of doses and the delivery date have ignited the spirits between the Government and the local and regional leaders.
“A country flag.” This is how President Iván Duque described the National Vaccination Plan against COVID-19, which began on February 17 after Verónica Machado, head nurse in Sincelejo, was the first to receive the long-awaited dose. For days, Duque has insisted on a message to the country, but especially to the governors and mayors, that this process should not be mediated by “political or ideological differences.” “This is not the time for demagoguery, populism, fractures or foolish criticism. Here we all have to get ahead, ”he said, repeating that he hopes this will be the year of mass, safe and free immunization, the motto of his government at this stage. Despite his words, what has happened has been the opposite.
Vaccination has become the workhorse of the Government and local and regional leaders. While the Executive celebrated the arrival of the initial batch – which contained 50 thousand biologicals -, shared hopeful messages and a striking victory photo that turned Twitter around, the dissatisfied voices rumbled against them and did what the Government did not want: criticize their management. The quantity of doses for some regions and the day of its delivery were the two main factors that ignited the spirits, marinated, of course, with an evident political charge, since those who criticized the criteria and logistics to choose the cities were political opponents and get them the vaccines first.
Claudia López, mayor of Bogotá, expressed her displeasure: “Just as the vaccines go to Montería and Sincelejo, which makes us happy, they can also go to the logistics center of the District Secretariat so that they can reach the seven hospitals in Bogotá.” wrote on February 16. In a clear onslaught, he added that, although “he respects the political preferences of the Presidency to take the vaccination photo in his reference city,” this “should not delay the distribution of vaccines to other cities, especially the one where they landed and that everything is ready to go. “
Read more: “It will be a marathon, not the 100 meter dash”: Government to Claudia López for vaccines.
The pulse was even more evident when the president proposed to give up part of the Bogotá doses so that the Amazon could vaccinate its health personnel. “There are 335 people. We do it if the Minister of Health authorizes. It has been the department most affected by COVID-19 and faces the circulation of the Brazilian strain, “said López. In addition to this, the controversy around Amazonas occurred because, at first, this department was not among the territories that would soon receive biologicals. This was later cleared up by the president and admitted as a “mistake.”
Those were not the only calls for attention to the Government. Carlos Caicedo, governor of Magdalena, put his territory on alert when he warned that the doses had been reduced and that the day of delivery of the same was changed. “They cut Magdalena what they had assigned, to the point that it is not enough to vaccinate the staff of the third level hospital, which corresponds to 250 people,” he said in a video. He also explained that the cut left them with 930 doses and that the arrival of these was on Friday, February 19, but they moved it to Tuesday 23. “Inadmissible that, for electing an alternative government, the National Government punishes the department for its democratic independence ”, he questioned.
The government responded to the controversies. The Minister of Health, Fernando Ruiz, described the claim as justified and his team decided to include Magdalena again in the delivery that will take place on Friday, February 19. For his part, Daniel Palacios, Minister of the Interior, added that criticism of the Government shows how local leaders are doing politics around vaccination. “Those who make a call not to do politics are those who are doing politics. It is false that Magdalena is last, she has the start of the vaccination on Friday. They are making announcements that do not correspond to reality, “he said on W Radio.
For his part, Minister Ruiz replied to López that starting vaccination in a provincial city and not in Bogotá “has a great symbolic load. This will be a marathon, not the first 100 meters. ” He also confirmed the delivery of his doses to start immunization this Thursday.
You may be interested in: Mayors and governors, to coordinate a safety plan to guard vaccines.
Regarding Amazonas, it was Duke himself who publicly, in his daily program, clarified that what happened with this department is that it did not appear in the inaugural dose delivery plan due to an “involuntary” omission that they later noticed. They cost him dearly for that mistake. “Did you forget the Amazon? They forgot every excluded region, and the poor and small entrepreneurs, they forgot the working people, and science, they forgot the woman, and the young people, they forgot the university and the blacks and the indigenous people. They forgot Colombia, ”Senator Gustavo Petro questioned.
What are analysts saying about this?
For the professor at the Universidad del Rosario and political analyst Mauricio Jaramillo, it is evident that the vaccination process is becoming politicized, to the extent that the Duque government renounced political control and sent a message of transparency, “saying that it was political opportunism ”, and he is also taking advantage of it to promote himself, instead of teaching on such a delicate subject.
“By refusing to be held accountable, hiding behind confidentiality and the critical moment, the government ended up politicizing the issue. The aggravating factor is that, instead of explaining the process, what Duque does is take victorious photos. It is disrespectful: a lot of people have died here and the Government goes out to spread their image. The pedagogical vocation that should accompany vaccines was renounced ”.
According to Jaramillo, politicization is not only carried out by the Executive, but also by local governments: “Both levels should agree and coordinate an articulation strategy. This is a shared responsibility and they have dedicated themselves to polemicizing, instead of articulating, ”criticizes Jaramillo, for whom it is still premature to predict the electoral use of vaccines, since this will depend on compliance with the schedule. “Here the issue will be economic reactivation and how to recover resources without hitting the most vulnerable.”
In turn, Professor Juan Federico Pino, from the Faculty of Political Sciences of the Javeriana University, warns that, beyond politicization, the problem today is misinformation around the vaccine process: “The issue has already become politicized because it is of public and citizen interest. That is legitimate. However, what is serious is the misinformation and confusion in the process. This can lead to a situation of uncertainty, which causes people to refrain from getting vaccinated. That would be the worst scenario ”.
According to Pino, these misinformation practices of course have electoral interests and the positioning of actors as their background, but also because of government communication failures. “On Twitter, in the presidential account, incomplete information is shown or it is reduced to saying that the issue is becoming politicized,” adds the professor, who shares Jaramillo’s concern regarding vaccination.
“You have to increase pedagogy and clarity. The National Government is in arrears to respond to any subnational or local authority, it is something necessary. Today the problem is not that it responds to the claims of a mayor, but the aggressiveness with which it does so, as a result of polarization, ”says the analyst, ensuring that there will only be actors benefited at the electoral level if the vaccination process meets expectations and it is rigorous. “If it is possible to be constant in the supply they will be able to take advantage, but if there are obstacles they would end up favoring opposition sectors”.
This being the case, the disagreements and errors contradict what was said by President Iván Duque. Beyond his message of presenting the immunization plan as a “country purpose”, what has happened corresponds to the politicization of an issue that should be due, above all, to technical readings and not to political controversies.
