01/18/2021 12:32 PM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 01/18/2021 12:32 PM
"Argentina is a
testing ground
for Moscow's global vaccine campaign."
With that title, The Wall Street Journal published on Monday a critical note about the
vaccination campaign
in our country, in which it also advances on the Russian strategy to capture the
market of emerging countries
in the fight against the coronavirus.
Argentina is today the main country outside of Russia that is vaccinating on a large scale with Sputnik V. This weekend the second doses of the 300,000 vaccination schedules that are being applied to health personnel arrived.
The contract signed with the government of Vladimir Putin establishes the sale of doses to vaccinate a total of 10 million people before February, with the option of 5 million more by March, as announced by President Alberto Fernández when he presented the contract , in early December.
However, there were no details yet on when the delivery of these lots would take place, which would come in different shipments from China and India.
So far, only Belarus and Serbia are vaccinating with Sputnik.
Regarding the local vaccination campaign, the prestigious US newspaper notes that its launch at the end of December "has raised
questions related to the lack of transparency
about Sputnik V", which "aroused certain mistrust among Argentines regarding of your safety. "
In this regard, the Wall Street Journal cites a recent Poliarquía poll, also released by
Clarín
, which shows that people's intention to get vaccinated decreases and that Sputnik V is the one with the
lowest confidence levels
.
28% of those surveyed said they had "no confidence" against this drug, against 10% who answered the same about Pfizer and 9% regarding AstraZeneca / Oxford.
He also points out that Argentina began to vaccinate without documentation confirming that the vaccine can be applied to those over 60 years of age.
"Among the first Latin American countries to be inoculated, 200,000 people in Argentina received Sputnik, most of them health personnel and other essential workers. Many of them are happy to receive the injection and say that Argentines
will be less skeptical as they more doses are administered
, "he describes.
The note points out that Argentina suffers from "one of the worst spikes" of coronavirus in Latin America, and that initially "it hoped to secure vaccines from Western suppliers, but
failed to reach an agreement with Pfizer
for reasons that Argentine officials did not disclose. The government President Alberto Fernández has an agreement with AstraZeneca to receive 22 million doses, but the delivery date is not clear. Meanwhile, the Russian vaccine was ready. "
Thus, at less than $ 10 a dose, it became "an attractive alternative" for the Argentine government, "which defaulted on $ 65 billion in foreign debt last year and whose net reserves are close to zero, according to private economists. ".
In this sense, the newspaper quotes the specialist Benjamin Gedan, director of the Argentina project at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington: for him, the agreement with Moscow "was
a decision born out of the desperation
of a government that failed to ensure for the population Argentina the access to more reliable and effective vaccines ".
The article reviews the history of this vaccine, which with its name
honors the Russian satellite
launched during the Cold War.
Moscow approved it for home use before clinical trials were completed, the results of which have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal but which, according to information released by the Russian Fund for Direct Investment, is 91.4% effective. .
Until now, it has not received approval "from Western health authorities or received authorization from the World Health Organization, which many developing countries depend on to test vaccines."
Russia started talks with the European health agency, the EMA, and also applied to the WHO.
In Russia so far a million people have been vaccinated.
Including Argentina, eight countries authorized its emergency use.
Here the authorization was made by the Ministry of Health of the Nation.
According to a report from Duke University's Global Center for Health Innovation, Russia ranks
third in doses commissioned by low- and middle-income countries
, ahead of Pfizer and Moderna.
The sale of millions of doses of Sputnik V that the Russian Investment Fund is facing, notes The Wall Street Journal, is making Russia one of the large suppliers and "could give it a valuable portion of the global market for the Covid vaccine. -19 and
potentially a geopolitical influence in the developing world
. "
With poor countries limited to procuring vaccines and hoping to receive them later this year through the WHO Covax mechanism and Europeans and the United States guaranteeing most of the doses developed by Western laboratories, Russia stepped up its actions "to fill the gap. ".
There appear as potential clients developing countries, such as Argentina, and a market estimated by Russian officials of
100,000 million dollars annually
.
Russia wants to have a 30% share in the market of the countries that buy vaccines, and in this line the possibility of a light version of Sputnik with a single dose is included, which is currently being tested.
More than a dozen countries have already signed agreements with Russia, including India and Mexico, in addition to Argentina, and according to information from the Wall Street Journal, Russians have already received purchase orders or at least expressions of interest for
2.4 billion doses of their vaccine.
.
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