Natasha Niebieskikwiat
08/19/2020 - 16:10
- Clarín.com
- Society
The Government claims to have 17 countries interested in accessing the Covid 19 vaccine that is in development and will be produced together with Mexico, according to last week's announcement made by Presidents Alberto Fernández and Andrés Manuel López Obrador. It is the vaccine created by the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, which is in the last phase of testing.
Among these stakeholders, who made themselves heard before the Foreign Ministers Felipe Solá and Marcelo Ebrard during the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) that ended on Tuesday virtually, are Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras , among others. , Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. Brazil, meanwhile, has its own dance vaccine manufacturing.
"The vaccine against Covid-19 shows that the integration of Latin America does not only consist of political unity to question ideological aspects, and it is not just trade, but a way of conceiving ourselves to respond to the demands of our societies," said Solá.
"The vaccine against Covid shows what we want to be, what we want to do and what we are doing," the minister told his colleagues, who applauded the Argentine-Mexican announcement last week.
Solá participated in the summit with the Minister of Health, Ginés Gonzalez García , and with the influential Chief of Cabinet of the Foreign Ministry, Guillermo Justo Cháves.
AstraZeneca announced that Argentina and Mexico could produce their AZD1222 vaccine from the first quarter of 2021, if the results of phase 3 (the one that is tested in humans) are positive in November. And the Mexican magnate Carlos Slim will give economic support through his foundation to manufacture it in the region.
That generated a long announcement in front of the television cameras by Alberto Fernández, while in Mexico it was Andrés Manuel López Obrador's foreign minister who gave details of it. According to the minister, this project will allow the region to access the vaccine between six months and a year earlier than expected.
Foreign Ministry sources in Argentina clarified that the mode of access that the vaccine will have to the interested countries has not yet been decided. It will not be free, but they will seek to "guarantee equitable access," they said. And they explained that this refers to the fact that credits could be implemented, or more accessible prices than others that can pay it. Or donations, they pointed out.
At this Celac summit, the Latin American countries called for the vaccine against the new coronavirus disease to be universal and emphatically demanded that it "reach all Latin Americans regardless of their ideology."
By the way, Celac is one of the most comfortable spaces today for the foreign policy of the Alberto Fernández government. Nicolás Maduro's regime participates in this. Throughout the pandemic, the Argentine president was heard saying that the Caribbean country had to be included and not isolated , as is the case in organizations such as Mercosur and Prosur.
At the same time, several countries are allied with China, which also has its own research for the presentation of a vaccine.
Beijing promised US $ 1 billion in loans so that Latin America can develop its vaccines.Argentina also signed up in this space for cooperation with its main ally today.
As of last Monday, America registered 11.56 million confirmed cases of coronavirus - out of a total of 21.5 million - and 417,695 deaths.
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