Pablo Sigal
02/08/2021 12:00
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 02/08/2021 12:00
Between the
militancy
and the
algorithm there
must be some way, even if it is not easy to find.
The question is politically paradigmatic, but it has a special impact on the distribution of vaccines against the coronavirus.
That is, so that the distribution made by the State of this precious asset should not be dyed with the colors of a political party or, on the opposite side, be delegated to the cold availability of a website.
The basic problem is the
shortage of doses
, with the erratic arrival of Russian production, the promise of a first batch of
half a million
of those from AstraZeneca by the end of February and a batch of the Covax solidarity fund whose flow is a quarter of what than expected.
Added to this is the controversy over the distribution and enrollment criteria to get the vaccine.
In short, who are those who
actually end up immunized today
?
In recent weeks had drawn attention in the Province
tables Campora
in
that people who wanted to be vaccinated were noted.
There was no discrimination based on risk groups: many of those who came and left their data may not be able to be vaccinated this year, since they
do not belong
to the populations that the national plan prioritizes.
However, there is a kind of game of
emotions and expectations there
: the illusion of thousands of Argentines who will surely have their doses at some point, although for now it is not known when.
On the Buenos Aires side of General Paz, the controversy runs through another cable car.
There are no officials who take photos while they are inoculated, or search for celebrities to raise awareness among the population.
Political bosses under 60 see a vaccine and walk away.
And the object of desire is channeled only through a
cold website
that centralizes the online registration system.
Medical professionals or those over 70 years of age must enter that website, for example, to try to be part of the privileged "new class" with an immunity card.
Of course,
extreme attention
is required
to hunt down the exact moment when the process is enabled, once the doses are available.
A resident of a Buenos Aires nursing home after receiving Sputnik-V.
Photo: Télam
The method requires a kind of permanent watch to get a vaccine, which doctors say causes
anxiety and stress
.
This scenario determined the recent publication of a joint communiqué by the Forum of Mental Health Professionals of the City of Buenos Aires, made up of 13 associations, including the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association (APA) and the Association of Psychologists of Buenos Aires.
There the method of obtaining a vaccine is compared with the demand for
tickets for a recital.
"The government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires has opened a website that offers a
few shifts
for vaccination against Covid-19 with an irregular and unknown frequency by the community, starting with health personnel. This requires daily surveillance at
unusual hours
, equating the long-awaited vaccine with tickets to a concert or any other scarce consumer good. In addition to the logical anxiety, a situation of great
uncertainty
has been generated
, since no one knows when or how these vacancies will occur , which sell out quickly, ”says the document released by the Forum.
Professionals, led by doctors Liliana Herrendorf and Victoria Cohen, and graduates Susana Benveniste and Marta Lifschitz, add: “In addition to the unacceptable fact that it is necessary to compete individually to obtain health-related supplies, depending on
who finds out first
or who has more access to technological resources, this prevents proper planning and management of priorities and risks.
For example, a professional who can
attend remotely
is not the same
as another in close contact with patients.
But the category 'independent professionals' does not establish distinctions and only implies the chance of finding out in time when a shift was enabled to be vaccinated, with the consequent concern and anguish of the most exposed workers, who continue to see their work and health affected " .
One of the vaccination registration posts of La Cámpora in San Martín.
Indeed, the enrollment criteria to obtain a vaccine do not require, for example, to
work in a hospital or clinic
, where professionals go through their working hours with greater exposure to the coronavirus.
Independent health personnel are required to have their registration number, which may even be the case of professionals who do not practice and yet manage to apply the vaccine, while other more vulnerable doctors or the population over 70 years of age continue to wait. their doses.
The same problem arose in the province of Buenos Aires, when the Buenos Aires College of Psychologists offered the district professionals to register to receive the Russian vaccine, without determining whether the applicant fulfilled a
risk function
that required immediate immunization.
Covid vaccination center at Club Atlético River Plate: Photo: Mario Quinteros.
To complete the picture, the
"vaccine cartoneros"
are added
, people who appear at the immunization centers to try to receive any excess dose, which should not be applied should be discarded: each ampoule is divided into five doses that must be injected in almost simultaneously, and sometimes there is the absence of legitimate candidates to receive it.
In other words, the vaccine deficit in Argentina is enhanced not only by the abuse of "inspiring inoculations" carried out by propagandists from both provincial and municipal governments, but also by the absence of a system that
optimizes resources
, so that the former Sputnik V or the next to come from AstraZeneca are effectively those who need them most.
$
Look also
Two new strains of the coronavirus from Brazil detected in Argentina
South Africa suspends its vaccination campaign with AstraZeneca
