The approval of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine in the UK has revived hopes in the rest of the world for a way out of the covid-19 pandemic this year.
The Mexican Foreign Ministry has opened the door for the first doses to be applied in the country this month and has taken the opportunity to send a message to health regulators to speed up their approval in the country.
"What many assumed impossible now is a reality: vaccination is about to start in December 2020," Marcelo Ebrard, Foreign Minister, wrote on Twitter.
"In Mexico the regulatory authority already has the corresponding request," he added.
The Ministry of Health announced hours later the signing of a contract to purchase 34.4 million doses, which can immunize more than 17 million inhabitants.
Mexico had already signed an intention to purchase agreement with the US pharmaceutical company last October.
The Ministry of Health and the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris) have yet to give their approval for its sale and distribution.
On Thursday, November 26, Pfizer made a formal request to start the process.
In the process, two conflicting views in the Government have emerged.
The Foreign Ministry, which negotiates with the laboratories, seeks authorization as soon as possible to crown a diplomatic strategy of several months.
Health authorities, on the other hand, have opted for caution while preparing the technical criteria for vaccination.
The UK authorizes the vaccine developed by Pfizer.
In Mexico, the regulatory authority (Ministry of Health-Cofepris) already has the corresponding request.
What many assumed impossible is now a reality: vaccination is about to start in December 2020.
- Marcelo Ebrard C. (@m_ebrard) December 2, 2020
The calculation of the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador since the signing of the agreements with Pfizer, the Chinese CanSino and the British AstraZeneca is that the first doses will arrive this month, with the aim of vaccinating up to 2.6 million Mexicans.
Up to 250,000 doses of Pfizer are expected to be received in December.
With the stumbling block of the authorization of its use, which is getting closer as more countries give the green light to this product, the criteria that it will follow for vaccination, which will start in health personnel in the first line, must still be made public coronavirus care and risk groups.
"Beyond announcing dates with the optimism that is wanted, it is necessary to inform about the times and the strategy," says Mauricio Rodríguez, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
"There is an urgent need for a vaccine, it is urgent for it to arrive, it is urgent for the regulatory authority to approve it, it is urgent that it be defined how it is going to be used, but all this is being done by several teams at the same time," he adds.
At the other end of the negotiating table is the Treasury, the secretariat in charge of allocating the resources for the purchase of vaccines and the necessary supplies, such as syringes and bottles of saline solution.
“Experience says that up to 10 million vaccines can be given per month, which means that at the beginning of the process the restriction that we do not have enough vaccines will 'bite' and towards the second and third month, the challenge will to be how we organize ourselves to put all the vaccines that arrive in the country, "Secretary Arturo Herrera said last week.
The Secretary of Health, Jorge Alcocer Varela, signed today the Agreement for the manufacture and supply of vaccine # COVID19 between @G GobiernoMX and @pfizer to acquire 34.4 million vaccines.
pic.twitter.com/3I0XDr6DM1
- SALUD México (@SSalud_mx) December 2, 2020
Within logistics, the deep-freezing conditions required by Pfizer's vaccine still need to be resolved, which has already made boxes available to its customers that allow it to be transported and kept for a few days.
This is a key point for the health authorities, who announced in mid-November that a deal would not be closed without resolving the issue of deep freezing, which has raised doubts in other countries.
Hugo López Gatell, spokesman for the pandemic, said Tuesday night that the agreement with Pfizer is that distribution "be as close to the point of use" and that in the future it will seek to install its own deep-freezing network.
In the crossing of messages between government agencies, the president has preferred to qualify optimism.
"Imagine that I say that there would be the possibility of starting to vaccinate at the end of this month, it does not depend on us," López Obrador said, almost at the same time that Ebrard made the publication on his social networks.
The Foreign Ministry's reading not only responds to the urgency of nine months to find a key to the economic and health crisis, it also seeks to anticipate a geopolitical track, in which several countries are going to seek doses of Pfizer.
The United States, for example, expects to immunize up to 6.4 million people in December,
The Washington Post reported
last week
.
López Obrador has advanced that 20,000 million pesos (about 1,000 million dollars) will be allocated to buy the vaccines, that the vaccination plan will be disclosed on Tuesday and that Mexican regulators will follow in the footsteps of what other countries do.
"The entire authorization process in Cofepris is also being simplified, so that we are not stopped there by bureaucracy, this is a matter of urgency," said the president in his morning press conference.
While an announcement is being prepared that can set the course for the months and years to come, the days and weeks to come will reveal the scope of a vaccination plan that is capturing the eyes of millions of people.
"I do not want to generate false expectations in a very delicate matter, we are interested in having the vaccine as soon as possible," said the president.
López Obrador insists on not using face masks
The president has also defended his decision not to use a mask or face mask on the recommendation of his Health team.
"Dr. Hugo López Gatell and Dr. [Jorge] Alcocer [Secretary of Health] tell me that it is not essential, that there are other measures and I think that the best thing is a healthy distance and taking care of each other," said the president, to nine months after the arrival of the virus and with more than 1,122,000 cases and 106,765 deaths from coronavirus, according to official data.
Good Morning.
To be part of the solution: mask and healthy distance.
- Claudia Sheinbaum (@Claudiashein) December 2, 2020
The statements came days after the World Health Organization asked Mexico "to take the pandemic seriously" and minutes after the head of government, Claudia Sheinbaum, from the same party, wrote on Twitter: " To be part of the solution: mask and healthy distance ”.
"Everyone is free," said the president when questioned by the contradictory messages.
“If the mask is used and that way the safer person feels, go ahead, everyone to have the mask.
If an authority recommends it, you have to pay attention to it ”.