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Officials and politicians immunized ahead of time, lies and politicization of the vaccine are some of the scandals that have been seen in the region around the vaccination processes against COVID-19. The result is the dilation of the defeat of the virus.
Everything positive that vaccination against COVID-19 brings to Latin America has begun to fade due to scandals of all kinds. Politicians, public officials and businessmen who are vaccinated before their time, politicization by some governments, deception and lack of doses are some of the scandals that have occurred. The worst thing is that this only delays the defeat of the virus because now, in addition to the purchasing gap that exists with other countries, there is an internal inequality in which the vaccine ceased to be a right and became the privilege of a few.
The privilege of vaccination
The irregular vaccination scandals in Argentina, Peru and Chile have sparked political storms whose consequences are beginning to be seen. The VIP vaccination in the Argentine government of Alberto Fernández was the last to be known and it already cost the then Minister of Health, Ginés González García his head. Everything exploded last Friday, when journalist Horacio Verbitsky publicly narrated how he had received the first dose of Sputnik V for being a friend of González.
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“I called my old friend Ginés González García, whom I have known long before he was a minister, and he told me that I had to go to the Posadas Hospital. When I was about to go, I received a message from his secretary, who told me that a team of vaccinators from Posadas was coming to the Ministry, and to go to the Ministry to give me the vaccine, “the 79-year-old journalist told El Uncover radio. From there began the snowball effect that could even splash the new Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, a specialist in internal medicine who worked as Secretary of Access to Health.
According to the newspaper Página 12, President Fernández assured one of his journalists in an informal conversation: “I demanded his resignation with pain. Ginés (González García) was a great minister. And I also want it. But what he did is unforgivable. Politics is ethical, we have to put an end to this type of practice, to the Argentine culture of liveliness, mischief, the handling of influences. I do not tolerate things like that. Nor do I do things like that. I drive my own car. When I was not a civil servant and they offered me to go to the VIP Lounge without queuing, I refused. As president, I cannot consent to these privileges being granted ”.
The lawyer Jorge Monastersky, who made one of the first complaints about the scandal on Friday, presented this Sunday an extension of the same requesting the justice to investigate how the vaccinated were registered and the possible crime of “ideological falsehood” (inclusion of false data in a public document). The lawyer requested that it be investigated if there were persons improperly registered as essential or strategic personnel or some other qualification to be able to justify the vaccination when it was not corresponding to them.
For his part, the head of the Foundation for Peace and Climate Change in Argentina, Fernando Miguez, stated: “It is unprecedented that there is someone, in this case the leadership of the Ministry of Health, who dictates who should die and who should live . With 50,000 deaths that we have in the country, this is a case of clear corruption ”.
Another major scandal occurred in Peru. Baptized “vaccinagate”, it was discovered the irregular application to high officials and their families of an exclusive batch of vaccines delivered by the Chinese laboratory Sinopharm for the personnel involved in the clinical trial of its vaccine. Last week the list of the 487 inoculated was made public, in which the former president Martín Vizcarra appears as a guest and, registered as “close environment” are the names of his wife and brother.
The fact is not limited to the officials of the previous administration, but splashes the current transitional government, chaired by Francisco Sagasti, since the now former ministers Pilar Mazzetti (Health) and Elizabeth Astete (Foreign Relations) were also vaccinated, who, Unlike Vizcarra, they did it once the vaccine had already been approved.
A week ago it was known that the trial protocol established the sending of a batch with 3,200 extra doses “to be voluntarily administered to the research team and personnel related to the study.” Of that quota, 1,200 were allegedly in the hands of the Chinese Embassy in Peru and 2,000 in the management of the team in charge of the clinical trial, which provided them at the request of the authorities and close contacts.
Despite being one of the leaders in the vaccination process, the last one involved is Chile, where controversy also broke out when the Department of Health Statistics and Information (DEIS) revealed that some 37,306 people were inoculated outside of their shift. All, therefore, would have been under sixty years old and without chronic diseases, mandatory requirements to be part of the first vaccination group.
The Chilean Undersecretary of Health, Paula Daza, spoke to the media and announced that a meticulous investigation will be carried out to determine what happened. “A vaccine that is given to a minor [de la edad estipulada en el calendario] it is one less vaccine for that person at higher risk; therefore, it is essential that they adapt to the calendar, which has the health objective of vaccinating these populations that are most at risk.
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The politicized vaccine
Colombia is the third country most affected by the pandemic in Latin America, with 2,207,701 positive cases and 58,134 deaths. Although the Colombian president asked that the vaccine not be involved in politics, but rather that it be seen as a collective achievement, his words were short-lived, as officials from different blocs have been criticized for wanting to take center stage in the distribution and application of the first 50,000 doses received from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
Of the situations that surprised were the first vaccinations in Bogotá and Medellín, where the photos of the president himself and the vice president, Marta Lucía Ramírez, were harshly questioned. Another criticism of the government was made last Thursday, when the vaccination day in Cali was delayed four hours due to a visit from the Minister of Justice, Wilson Ruiz Orejuela. The mayor of the city, Jorge Iván Ospina, reacted and said: “Vaccines effectively have a capital impact to intervene in the Covid pandemic, but we cannot lower our guard in biosecurity measures and I want the excessive ‘Show’ to pass now to dedicate ourselves to the fundamental ”.
The photo of Daniel Quintero Calle, mayor of Medellín, holding the right hand of Alba Rocío Montoya, a nursing assistant at the General Hospital of that city, while she received the vaccine in her left arm, was also classified as unnecessary.
Tricks
Brazil, for its part, has also had scandals around the issue, starting with its high death toll from COVID. In fact, last week registered 1,308 deaths from the disease in 24 hours, leading to two consecutive days with more than 1,300 daily deaths, the Ministry of Health reported this Friday. In this dark panorama, complaints about air vaccines were known; that is, the application of empty syringes.
The facts became known after the viralization of some videos on social networks. The Rio de Janeiro Police stated: “If the investigations confirm that there was a deviation of doses, or any other irregularity, the health professional may be accused of the crime of embezzlement (embezzlement), which has penalties that can reach up to twelve years in prison ”.
The Poverty Virus
One of the great problems surrounding the pandemic is the virus of poverty, lethal and powered by COVID. An AFP count from official sources indicates that 201,042,149 doses had been administered until last Saturday. Despite the G7 countries announcing their commitment to better sharing with poor countries on Friday, doubling their support for coronavirus vaccination, at this time nine out of ten vaccines are injected in countries with high resources or medium-high, according to the World Bank classification, and almost half (45%) in those of the G7.
In contrast, in the 29 low-income countries, only Guinea and Rwanda have started vaccinating. In fact, some 1.84 billion people, almost a quarter of the world’s population, live in countries that have not yet vaccinated. “No country will be safe until everyone is safe,” the Organization of American States (OAS) warned last week in a resolution approved by acclamation by its Permanent Council, which brings together the 34 active members of the body.
The initiative, presented by the countries of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), co-sponsored by Argentina, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Uruguay, among others, highlights that defeating the virus in a sustainable way throughout the planet will depend “on the availability and distribution of vaccines for all ”.
