Contact of the City Government with Israel to access vaccines against the coronavirus

Daniel seifert

05/13/2021 21:54

• Clarín.com

• Politics

Updated 05/13/2021 10:50 PM

With stealth but haste, the Government of the City of Buenos Aires established a concrete contact with Israel to access the surplus

of AstraZeneca vaccines

that that country did not use in its successful and advanced immunization plan against the coronavirus.

The person in charge of this negotiation was

Fernando Straface

, Secretary General and Institutional Relations of the Buenos Aires Government, and it occurs within the framework of a more ambitious work plan with Israel that could lead to Horacio Rodríguez Larreta's trip to Tel Aviv after entering the second semester of the year.

The contact for vaccines and that trip of the head of the Buenos Aires government, however, run

through different lanes

.

Rodríguez Larreta's visit to Israel is a plan that has been underway for months and that had its last advance in a

meeting

between Straface and

the Israeli ambassador Galit Ronen

, in the Buenos Aires offices of Uspallata, in Parque Patricios, last week.

The negotiations for vaccines, on the other hand, arose after the late and televised revelation of the Chief of Staff, Santiago Cafiero, who a month ago maintained that nothing prevented the provinces from negotiating for vaccines against Covid.

From the City they confirmed to

Clarín

that, from that moment, they

contacted all the laboratories

that produce doses in the world.

And also to

countries with surplus stocks

.

That was the case in Chile and also in Israel.

"It is not a negotiation, it was a consultation", clarify high sources of the City.

The comment is relevant because indeed, it is not yet known if these excess doses will be for sale.

What the Buenos Aires government did is

put itself at the top of the line

for when there is a definition.

Israel acquired

ten million vaccines

from AstraZeneca

that it ultimately did not use

, in part because of the obstacles and questions that this laboratory had from the European control organisms.

And in part because it achieved a high supply from Pfizer, and to a lesser extent from Moderna, which led to rapid progress in its immunization plan.

At present, Israel does not export vaccines: it is still at the dawn of Phase 3 approval of its own development, which could be tested in Argentina.

However, almost in parallel to Cafiero's words, Israel announced its intention to divest itself of the AstraZeneca lot.

The City would have been

interested in a remnant of a million doses

.

But it is not yet known

how Israel can get rid

of those vaccines.

The contracts signed with the laboratory would have some clauses that go

against resale

.

It is not even known if the country can

donate them

, another possible option.

Fernando Straface, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta's man who made the link with Israel.

Photo EFE

Anyway, that's what they asked from the City about it.

The negotiations do not have a near horizon.

Some sources say that there would be no news this two months.

But

interest was expressed

.

What they rule out is a trip by officials on this issue.

One version put the Buenos Aires chief of staff, Felipe Miguel, and Straface himself on a plane bound for Tel Aviv.

That will not happen.

The formal contact was from Straface - there was talk of sending

a letter

that no one in the Buenos Aires government wanted to confirm.

Ant work contributed the technical background of Francisco Resnicoff, Undersecretary of International and Institutional Relations, and Miguel's operational coordination.

Some sources gave a role in the move to Mariano Caucino, former Argentine ambassador to Israel during Mauricio Macri's mandate and current

unofficial advisor

to Rodríguez Larreta, on some issues.

But Causino himself denied his intervention before

Clarín's

consultation

.

Rodríguez Larreta takes flight

The trip that is organized is that of Rodríguez Larreta to Israel and has another agenda: it is to hold meetings for the

"post-pandemic" development

of cities, with a focus on the management of

public space

, one of the workhorses of the Buenos Aires management.

That this visit can be used to talk about vaccines is a logical option.

The current tensions in the Gaza Strip conspire against that international goal.

And also another piece of information: that Israel has

not

yet

defined what permits it will require from foreigners

to visit the country when it allows it again.

The link between the City of Buenos Aires and Israel is not new: already in 2016, the deputy head of the Buenos Aires Government, Diego Santilli, and Straface himself traveled there, interested in the development of knowledge industries and their interaction with companies and universities. .

Given these plans, Rodríguez Larreta's tweet in support of Israel for the attacks by the terrorist group Hamas takes an additional dimension.

And it also places the head of the Buenos Aires government on a more national level, who also has a plan to travel to the United States on his agenda.

Felipe Miguel, Buenos Aires Chief of Cabinet, coordinates the contact between the City and Israel.

Photo Press GCBA

If the contact for vaccines is successful, the Buenos Aires government clarifies that what is achieved will not be their exclusive.

"We will try to bring doses to the country,

it is not something that has the intention of being only for Buenos Aires

", they clarify.

In fact, warned of the City's negotiations, provincial and municipal emissaries - from Together for Change and also from other political colors - expressed their interest to the Buenos Aires government to join the negotiations.

The contact is made.

DS

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