"VIP Vaccination": What do Argentines say?
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(CNN Spanish) -
Immunization privileges, politicians skipping the line to receive experimental vaccines, fake covid-19 tests, fraudulent vials and even simulations of injections for the elderly.
The coronavirus vaccination scandals have exacerbated an already serious health crisis in Latin America.
These are some scandals and controversies that have marked the region in recent days.
"Wind Vaccines" in Brazil
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The Rio de Janeiro Public Ministry is investigating at least four cases of "wind vaccines."
People have reported having reviewed videos of the vaccination of their relatives and having verified that although it was simulated that they were being vaccinated, there was no vaccine in the syringe or that an injection was simulated without squeezing the syringe.
A video released to the media would show that on February 12, in the municipality of Niteroi, a nursing technician who treated a 90-year-old man "did not press the syringe, ceasing to apply the immunizer," according to the Public Ministry , who accuses her of having appropriated the vaccine and requested preventive detention.
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Also, in Copacabana, in Rio de Janeiro, another video recorded by relatives would show that the syringe to immunize an 85-year-old woman was empty at the time of inoculation.
As a result of the accusations, in some vaccination points such as Bangú and Campo Grande in Rio de Janeiro, recording the vaccination was prohibited.
However, the Municipal Secretariat of Health of Rio de Janeiro issued an orientation so that the recordings are not impeded.
CNN has attempted to contact the State Health Foundation for comment.
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"VIP Vaccination" in Argentina
Last week, the president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, called for the resignation of his Minister of Health, Ginés González García, after a scandal of alleged influence peddling was unleashed to vaccinate officials related to the ruling party.
"In Argentina 70 people were vaccinated in an irregular manner," said President Fernández during his visit to Mexico.
And he added that “the irregular concept is a concept that should be reviewed.
Among those vaccinated there were people who should strategically be vaccinated ».
Carla Vizzotti, who replaced González as the new Health Minister, said that these vaccinations were a "mistake" and denied having been aware when they were carried out, that there was a "VIP vaccination" and that the portfolio that she now leads has separated 3,000 doses for your discretionary use.
«From the Ministry of Health we are going to strengthen transparency because we have the traceability of vaccines, we have the system of who gets vaccinated and not vaccinated, and we also have the possibility of strengthening that through a much more specific mechanism, more concrete and, clearly, disseminate it regularly because it is a subject of great sensitivity, "said Vizzotti this Monday in an interview with Radio Con Vos.
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«Vacunagate» in Peru
Controversy in Peru due to irregular application of vaccines 1:33
On Friday, the Public Prosecutor's Office Specialized in Crimes of Corruption requested the preliminary arrest of public officials who would have benefited from the experimental vaccine outside the clinical trials carried out by the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia and the Chinese laboratory Sinopharm.
Among these officials are the former Ministers of Health, Pilar Mazzetti, and of Foreign Relations, Elizabeth Astete.
Both admitted to having been vaccinated.
Astete said that doing so was "a serious mistake."
Mazzetti apologized for what he called "the worst mistake" of his life.
The "vaccinate" involves current and government officials, including former President Martín Vizcarra, who, in a public statement on Monday, blamed "a political class that is only interested in creating chaos" for his involvement in a scandal.
In addition, Vizcarra tweeted on Sunday that his decision to get vaccinated "had not caused any harm to anyone, much less the state."
And that "he did not take advantage of the situation because it was a project [to develop] a vaccine that had not yet gone through all the approval phases."
"I had valid reasons for not making my participation public [in the clinical trials], since it would have jeopardized the normal development of Phase III of the experimental vaccination of Sinopharm worldwide," the former president wrote.
Vizcarra appears on a list of nearly 500 people who "took advantage of their position" to gain access to the Chinese-made vaccine, according to current interim president Francisco Sagasti earlier this week.
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: Francisco Sagasti on vaccinate: "What has happened is an aberration that must be treated as such"
Other controversies
And the controversies have not only appeared around vaccines.
On February 15, the Minister of Health of Guatemala, Amelia Flores, denounced the delivery of a batch of 30,000 tests to detect the COVID-19 that were supposedly false.
According to a source close to Flores' office, through the Transparency and Anti-Corruption Unit of the Ministry of Health, a complaint was filed with the Public Ministry "for possible illegal acts committed in the acquisition of supplies to strengthen the diagnostic capacity of patients in the Regional Hospitals of Zacapa, Huehuetenango and Chimaltenango, in response to the state of calamity, according to Government Decree 5-2020 ».
The source adds that those responsible for its application found anomalies and that "it was detected that the supplies purchased from a public limited company do not meet the quality offered and produce invalid results when using them for the purposes for which they were purchased."
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: Minister of Health of Guatemala denounces purchase of alleged false tests to detect covid-19
According to the Ministry of Health, the delivered product does not include the instruction manual and its packaging, presentation and labeling are different compared to the authentic product.
The head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office, Stuardo Campo, told CNN that on Tuesday that Minister Flores delivered an extensive complaint that involves the company Kron Científica e Industrial, SA and former officials of the Health department, who had intervened in the purchase of the allegedly false evidence.
In the official portal of Guatecompras there are several awards to the company Kron Científica e Industrial, SA, among which a purchase made in September 2020 to acquire a lot with 30,000 tests for an amount of Q7,350,000 (about US $ 954,000) stands out. .
The Prosecutor's Office indicates that since last Friday the evidence was packed and that the investigations are continuing and that it is being investigated whether the company committed the crimes of fraud, fraud, fraud in delivery of goods, material falsehood, ideological falsehood, among others.
CNN has tried to contact the legal representative of the company in question, without receiving a response.
LEE
: 70 fraudulent covid-19 vaccines seized at Bogotá airport
On the other hand, while Colombia began its vaccination plan against covid-19, the authorities seized 70 fraudulent vaccines manufactured in China at the El Dorado airport in Bogotá.
The Colombian Ministry of Health reported in a statement that through an operation by the National Institute for Food and Drug Surveillance (Invima) and the National Tax and Customs Directorate (DIAN), “the entry of vaccines was restricted to a passenger , who was coming from a flight from the United Arab Emirates ».
"The inspection showed that the products entered the country with foreign language labeling," said the ministry.
He added that “the quantities shown in the packing list are 100 vaccines (vials) and once it was reviewed it was observed that 70 vaccines arrived.
It was also found that the batch number on the packing list did not match the labeling of the boxes inspected.
Covid-19VacunagateVIP Vaccination