Argentina begins the application of the Russian vaccine against covid-19 in Latin America

The Russian vaccine against covid-19 has reached Latin America.

Made through Argentina.

With the application of the first dose to a medical therapist at a hospital in the province of Buenos Aires, Sputnik V, produced by the Gamaleya laboratory, has entered a territory disputed by laboratories in the United States, Europe and China.

The first 300,000 doses arrived in the South American country on December 24, aboard an Aerolineas Argentina flight sent especially to Moscow.

Five days later, the Government of Alberto Fernández began vaccination simultaneously in the 23 provinces of the country, in addition to the city of Buenos Aires.

The doses received are enough to immunize 76% of the medical personnel who fight the coronavirus from the front line of fire.

With the start of the campaign, Argentina becomes the fourth country in the region to vaccinate its population, behind Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica.

“The idea is to start vaccination with those who are most exposed to risk.

It is a true epic to carry out the largest vaccination campaign in Argentina with equal access ”, said the Minister of Health, Ginés González García, at the beginning of the process at the Posadas Hospital, a mass of cement that serves tens of thousands of patients in the western outskirts of the Argentine capital.

60 kilometers from there, in the city of La Plata, the governor of the Buenos Aires province, Axel Kicillof, became the first Argentine politician to receive the vaccine against covid-19.

"I'm proud to put my shoulder," he said.

The arrival of the second dose of the Russian vaccine is scheduled for mid-January.

In a second stage, it will be received by police officers and teachers, in addition to those over 60 years of age.

It will be then when President Fernández, who is 61 years old, and Minister González García, 75 years old, are vaccinated.

The effectiveness of Sputnik V in people over 60 years of age was a subject of debate two weeks ago, when the Argentine government learned that the vaccine was not tested in that age group.

The incident gave wings to the opposition to Peronism, who accused Fernández of a lack of transparency with a drug that has the suspicion of citizens and experts for the speed of his trials.

Argentina has signed, in addition to Moscow, supply contracts with the US laboratory Pfizer and with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which works in partnership with the University of Oxford.

The Government had bet a lot on the latter, after signing, last August, an agreement for the manufacture in a local laboratory of the vaccine asset, which will then be packaged and distributed to all of Latin America from Mexico.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is delayed, and the Casa Rosada then rushed negotiations with Gamaleya in order not to lose the race.

It was thus that Argentina and Belarus, which began supplying the vaccine also this Tuesday, became the first countries - except Russia, of course - to administer it in the regular channels.

Sputnik V has already completed clinical trials and is awaiting publication of the results in a top-level scientific journal, as confirmed by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the financier of the vaccine.

Although Argentines are not the first to receive it: Venezuela has vaccinated 120 people within its clinical trials.

The developers claim that Sputnik V is more than 91% effective after receiving the two doses that make up the vaccine.

Immunization was authorized this weekend also for those over 60, following a separate study in people in this age group, the Ministry of Health reported on Saturday.

That specific trial was done with 150 older volunteers.

Until then, the injection was only indicated for people between 18 and 60 years old, which caused controversy in Argentina.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is 68, has already said that he would be vaccinated when Sputnik V received the go-ahead from scientists for his age group.

The permit has arrived and there are many who are waiting - in Russia and abroad - for the injection to be given.

So far, Argentina has received only the first of the two doses.

The second shipment, which has the second and should be delivered 21 days after the initial injection, will arrive in January.

"In three weeks the second component will be delivered, possibly sooner, but not later," said Alexadr Gintsburg, head of the Gamaleya Institute, the developer of Sputnik V, who stressed that they are trying to accelerate production that -especially of the second dose- is delayed.

The Government of Alberto Fernández has bought 10 million doses of the immunization, based on adenovirus of the common cold and with two vaccination vectors.

Russia, which was the first country in the world to register a coronavirus vaccine, has come under fire for the speed and initial lack of transparency of the tests.

The Kremlin relies on immunization as a first line of defense against covid, which in the Eurasian country, one of the most affected worldwide, has infected more than three million people.

In addition, according to the latest review of the data, this Monday, some 186,000 have died from coronavirus in Russia, as recognized by Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golíkova, in charge of the coronavirus operation, citing demographic data.

A figure three times higher than that collected in the registry of those killed by coronavirus, greatly questioned by experts, who have been criticizing the count almost since the beginning of the pandemic.

But in addition, Moscow sees in Sputnik V a formula to return Russian science to the front line and a point of geostrategic force.

With a price of about $ 20 (the two doses), significantly lower than two of its competitors such as Moderna's vaccine and that of Pfizer, and transport logistics not too complex at first glance, Russia wants to export its vaccine to dozens of countries.

So far, more than 50 have expressed interest, according to the RDIF.

Information about the coronavirus

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- The coronavirus map: this is how cases grow day by day and country by country

- Questions and answers about the coronavirus

- Guide to action against the disease

- In case of symptoms, these are the telephones that have been enabled in each Latin American country.