Emilia vexler
03/31/2021 17:35
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 03/31/2021 5:35 PM
Distributed doses: 4,277,945.
Vaccines applied 3,570,460.
With the two doses: 661,528.
These are the data exposed by the Government on the Vaccination Plan against the Coronavirus in Argentina.
Flights taking off to bring more doses are also announced.
But behind the only 1.44% of the immunized population there are other hidden numbers.
That they
are dollars
and they do not appear in any press conference.
Immersed in the second wave of Covid, the first official data emerge on
how much the country has spent so far
on the vaccines it bought.
This information did not come from an interview with President Alberto Fernández, nor was it provided by the Minister of Health of the Nation, Carla Vizzotti.
It is the response to a request for access to public information that came from the opposition two months ago.
Specifically, from the national deputy of the Civic Coalition Mónica Frade.
According to the three agreements signed by the Government until January 28, the number of doses, the price per dose, the total price in millions, the additional costs and the total cost according to each brand of vaccine are reported.
The total official cost is $ 383.8 million
to vaccinate 27.2 million people with the two doses.
At the end of this note, the item "additional costs", which adds up to a total of 29 million dollars, was not described by the Government in response to
Clarín's
inquiries
.
And the differences are abysmal when it comes to Sputnik V, versus AstraZeneca and the Covax mechanism.
Minister Vizzotti went to receive the Russian vaccines in Ezeiza this Wednesday.
Photo: Fernando de la Orden
In the case of Sputnik V -the Russian vaccines that Airlines are going to seek in Moscow-, the purchase of 20 million doses (for 10 million people) is specified, at 9.9 dollars for each dose, which gives a total price of
199 million dollars.
But the additional cost is 24.9 million dollars (NdR: in the reference of the table it does not say "millions", perhaps, due to an error, but if the total price is added, which is in millions, the result is the total cost in those amounts);
bringing the total cost to
$ 223.9 million.
For AstraZeneca, the numbers are: 22.4 million doses, at $ 4 each, for
$ 89.7 million
, plus
$
2.9 million in additional costs, for a total cost of 92.6 millions of dollars.
For Covax: 9 million doses (4.5 million people), at $ 4 each dose, for a total price of
$ 36 million
, plus additional costs of $ 1.25 million, yielding a total of $ 37.3 million for those vaccines.
With the signature of the person in charge of Access to Public information, Mariana Giacobbe Goldberg, in the answer there are many numbers and few words that allow clarification.
That's $ 24.9 million in additional costs for Sputnik V, compared to $ 2.9 million "extra" for Astrazeneca doses and $ 1.25 million for Covax.
As
Clarín
learned
from government sources immersed in the circuit of access to Russian vaccines, when talking about "additional costs", in general, it refers to
"costs on land in Russia
.
"
Specifically, the transfer from the Gamaleya institute to the airport, in DHL boxes with their precise refrigeration, the hiring of the company that "palletizes" (puts on pallets) the vaccines and the cranes that raise the boxes to the Aerolineas planes Argentinas.
Part of the first batch of one million Sinopharm vaccines arrived in Argentina.
Photo: Xinhua
In the public information received by the deputy, it is read that the Undersecretary of Administrative Information "is not competent to inform the delivery date of the aforementioned vaccines" and it is suggested that the Undersecretariat of Access to Health be consulted.
They also did not detail, yet, the questions about these additional costs.
Doubts about the information
"These additional costs, so different between the Russian vaccine and the Astrazeneca vaccine, is something that cannot be explained. I am asking for information on this, I do not know if they will give it to me, with the description of these costs and the differences. Also I'm asking for airline travel costs. The idea is to make a price comparison of how much other countries paid for these same vaccines, "Frade tells
Clarín.
Sources in the aeronautical industry told this newspaper that the flights of our flag airline
- about $ 400,000 per flight -
are "50,000 euros cheaper than hiring a courier service", such as DHL, which brings vaccines directly.
Aerolineas Argentinas never officially answered why it was decided that going to Russia to find vaccines would be more convenient for the country.
A fourth contract, which is not in this official response on vaccine spending, is with Sinopharm.
According to Infobae, the Government paid in advance 60 million dollars to China for 3 million doses of the vaccine manufactured in that country.
Plus another 20 million for the first batch already arrived.
To this must be added the additional costs, which were not officially reported either.
$
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