Mexico vaccinates 9,500 people in three days of campaign and intensifies the search for doses

Mexican Army soldiers deliver the Pfizer vaccine in Saltillo, Coahuila.MIGUELSIERRA / EFE

Mexico has vaccinated 9,579 people since it started its immunization campaign against the coronavirus, on December 24.

The health authorities expanded the number of application sites for the Pfizer-BioNTech drug in six sites in Mexico City and punctures also began in the north of the country, in the states of Coahuila and Nuevo León.

At the same time, the hunt for more doses has intensified.

This has opened the door to Novavax, which announced this Monday that it will begin clinical trials in the North American country.

The last phase of testing will include 30,000 volunteers from around the world, 2,000 of them Mexican.

The Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador must also complete the purchase of 35 million doses of CanSino.

The particularity of Novavax's clinical trials, which will be held in seven regions with high rates of infection in the country yet to be defined, is that the target population is the groups most vulnerable to the virus, such as the elderly or those with diabetes and hypertension.

Two-thirds of the participants will receive two applications, administered 21 days apart, while the rest will receive a placebo.

Those responsible for the tests in Mexico and the United States seek that a quarter of the volunteers are older than 65 years and have a minimum of 15% African-American and up to a fifth of Latinos, the company has detailed in a statement.

"With the pandemic unleashed around the world, this trial is a critical step in building a global portfolio of safe and effective vaccines," said Stanley C. Erck, CEO of the company.

The US laboratory, which received support from the White House to develop its prototype, was scheduled to begin trials in November, but was delayed after problems producing the doses to be used in the tests.

It does have the advantage, however, that it requires a refrigeration temperature of between 2 and 8 degrees, compared to the deep-freezing network that Pfizer's vaccine requires, which would facilitate its distribution.

Its cost is estimated at 16 dollars per dose, about half the price of Moderna, a little less than the 19 dollars that Pfizer costs and about six times more expensive than AstraZeneca's, the cheapest among the more advanced candidates.

The company expects to give a first cut of results on studies it is doing in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia in the first quarter of 2021.

This is the third phase three clinical trial to be carried out in the country.

More than 8,000 Mexicans have volunteered for CanSino, which began its trials at the end of October.

Janssen began his studies on November 29 and has obtained 400 participants of the 2,000 he is looking for in Mexico, according to the latest available data cut, published last week.

Germany's Curevac and Russia's Sputnik V are in the process of starting their trials.

The Government's strategy is for the collaboration of Mexican volunteers to allow it to have preferential access to these vaccines and to provide free coverage to the 127 million inhabitants.

The symbolic delivery of a first shipment of 3,000 Pfizer vaccines on December 23 was complemented by a second batch of 42,900 doses, more than 34,000 were destined for Mexico City and the rest will be for Coahuila.

"After months of great effort to control the pandemic and mitigate its effects, today we begin the first phase of the vaccination program against covid-19 directed at our medical personnel," said the governor, Miguel Ángel Riquelme, who has detailed that 2,925 doses will go to Saltillo, the capital, the same number that will go to Torreón, the city most affected by the pandemic.

Monclova, which registered one of the first hospital outbreaks in the country, will receive 975 injections, while the Piedras Negras border will have 1,950 doses.

"There are very few vaccines and that is why we should not trust ourselves," said Manuel de la O, Secretary of Health of Nuevo León.

As in other countries, vaccination has started in a trickle, sparking debates over the weekend on social media about whether people with more resources should be allowed to buy the doses on their own.

The discussion touches on perennial issues in Mexican society such as economic inequalities and access to health.

López Obrador himself declared that there was no obstacle for those who wanted to acquire it on their own, but insisted that the distribution would be equitable and without preferential treatment for politicians or influential figures.

"Not everything is bought with money," the president said.

The challenge for the country is to face the most critical stage of the epidemic, which has left more than 122,000 deaths and 1.38 million infections, with a

limited

of vaccines and 87% of hospital saturation in Mexico City, the area most affected by the pandemic. As more doses arrive, the goal is to finish the medical staff in January and begin vaccinating the population in early 2021, starting with the oldest inhabitants. "It will be possible to vaccinate everyone," Lopez Obrador has promised, before interrupting his conference due to the death of Armando Manzanero.