An uproar in Italy.
The idea of distributing the doses of anti-Covid-19 vaccines according to the wealth produced by a territory, put forward by an official from Lombardy, the industrial and financial lung of Italy, scandalizes the country.
Letizia Moratti, the "minister" of Health of Lombardy and vice-president of this region held by the right and the far right, has asked the government to introduce four parameters in the criteria for the distribution of vaccines.
In addition to population density, it requires taking into account mobility, the impact of the novel coronavirus epidemic, and GDP.
But Lombardy meets all the criteria.
It has the highest demographic concentration in Italy, international mobility is the most important there due to the presence of many factories and company headquarters, it is the region most affected by the pandemic (a third of the 82,000 deaths were recorded there) but also the richest (it weighs about a quarter of the Italian GDP).
"Everyone has the right to the vaccine"
In a letter to the head of the Italian vaccination program, of which the press has published extracts, Letizia Moratti justifies "an acceleration of the distribution of vaccines in a region with a high density of inhabitants and businesses, and which constitutes one of the main economic engines of the country ”.
"It is not a question of giving more vaccines to the richest regions […] but by helping the recovery of Lombardy, we automatically contribute to the recovery of the whole country," she added.
The Italian Minister of Health immediately rejected the proposal.
“Everyone has the right to the vaccine, regardless of the wealth of the territory in which they live.
In Italy, health is a fundamental public good, guaranteed by the Constitution.
Not a privilege for those who have more ”, reacted Roberto Speranza.
"I hope this is
fake news,
" commented for his part the former Minister of Health Beatrice Lorenzin.
"Mrs. Moratti, you should be ashamed"
The consumer association ADUC recalls the warning launched Monday by the WHO, ensuring that the world would face a "catastrophic moral failure" in the event of unequal distribution of the vaccine.
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“The very day the director of WHO launched an appeal to prevent rich countries from monopolizing vaccines to the detriment of poor countries […] Letizia Moratti calls for vaccines to be distributed according to the region's GDP, so more you have money, the more vaccines you can get, ”denounces the ADUC in a press release.
"We want to say:
Ms. Moratti, you should be ashamed of yourself
, but it's a feeling that our manager may not know", concludes the ADUC.