Jose Maria del Pino
09/06/2021 1:37 PM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 09/06/2021 17:27
With the authorization of
the Sinovac vaccine for people over 6 years of age,
the neighboring country will begin to vaccinate children in fifteen days.
How have you made it move forward with so much vertigo?
The keys.
After noon on Monday, the Director of the Institute of Public Health of Chile, Heriberto García, walked visibly happy to face the microphones of the media.
The expert committee of the trans-Andean regulatory agency had authorized, after analyzing the data presented by Sinovac
for children between 3 and 17 years old
, its emergency use in those over 6 years of age.
In the opinion of the authority, from this age “the existing data
guarantee a good
immune
response
of the vaccine, in addition, this group is considered in school stage as the one with the greatest mobility, so that vaccination is particularly beneficial for them, having also take into account the scenario of the appearance of new variants ”.
Hours later, the Undersecretary of Health, Paula Daza, set dates: schoolchildren will begin to be vaccinated in schools
within the next 15 days
, probably after the country's National Holidays.
The president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera.
Photo DPA
But why has this southern country, whose per capita income is similar to Argentina,
installed itself at the forefront of the vaccination process
, surpassing world powers?
The importance of credibility
Despite Chile's bad political moment, ignoring its economic and institutional evolution in the last 40 years would be a shortsighted exercise.
Chileans are totally immersed in world trade (they hold the record of being the economy with the largest number of free trade agreements) and
their institutions enjoy credibility abroad.
Thus, in May 2020,
he sat at the table with various laboratories to negotiate contracts
.
They did not demand glaciers or guarantees, nor did he accept to renounce his sovereignty - which is why he finally discarded the contract with Janssen - the only thing he offered in exchange was his history of payments in time and form and the possibility of associating their houses of studies with laboratories for clinical trials.
Towards the end of last year, he
already had contracts
with Pfizer, Astra Zeneca, Sinovac and a pre-contract with Janssen.
He was one of the first to arrive with all of them.
With all of them, the first agreements were signed at the end of the first half of that year, just 6 months after the Pandemic was declared.
On December 24, the first Pfizer vaccines landed.
Then Sinovac did.
As of March, they had received 8,650,000 doses
for a population of 18 million inhabitants.
Today, they
already have 35,713,044 doses
, and have begun inoculating the third dose to prevent a Delta outbreak.
This last measure was specified by the studies that were carried out with combined doses in its territory.
The role of universities
The main houses of studies in the country
aligned with the Ministry of Science
to host the Phase III studies of the different laboratories.
It was at the Catholic University where the greatest cooperation relationship was established, between this institution and Sinovac.
The Phase III study of Coronovac, from that Chinese laboratory, which was carried out in Chile, served for its authorization by the WHO.
For the Asian laboratory, the role of the neighboring country was key to its global expansion, which is why they chose Santiago and Antofagasta as their research and development bases for all of Latin America.
They will produce 60 million vaccines a year
, to combat different diseases.
The Chilean Undersecretary of Health, Paula Daza.
Photo EFE
And it is in the Catholic one, precisely,
where the study in children and adolescents is developed
, which has already reached a sufficient sample field - combined with the results provided by China - to authorize its use in people over 6 years of age.
Regarding minors between 3 and 6, there should be news next month.
To these efforts is added that of various scientific societies and medical teams that have carried out trials of combined schemes and even clinical trials on massive concerts without reducing capacity for people with both doses.
All lined up behind the vaccination policy.
The Chinese vaccine did work
If there is a country that is close to the liberal economies of the first world, from Latin America, that is Chile.
But the right-wing government of Sebastián Piñera
decided not to fall into the geopolitical game
and negotiated with everyone.
Piñera, a successful businessman in companies like LAN (now Latam), bet on diversifying the risk and not marrying just a couple of suppliers.
Thus, in its portfolio of vaccines there are Belgians, Germans, North Americans, Chinese, Russians and Canadians.
And although Sinovac does not have the best efficacy to combat the disease,
the guarantee of delivering vaccines by the millions
made the Chilean government bet that the cases would not be reduced by the effectiveness of the vaccine, but by a massive vaccination, making it reach every corner.
That's how it went.
With more than 13.5 million vaccinated and 90.03% of the
target
population
with at least one dose (85% with two), they did not need a highly effective vaccine, but a traditional one, which exceeds 50%, which is the standard required by the WHO for any disease, to achieve control of the virus.
Today, Chile has
only about 3,500 active cases
, the new infections do not exceed 500 a day and yesterday the reported deaths were reduced to 17. The vilified Chinese vaccine, mixed with almost 5 million Chileans who received Pfizer, Cansino and Astra Zeneca , it fulfilled its objective.
With vaccination in schools, which will begin in the next few days, Chile will maintain its place on the podium of the countries that have vaccinated the fastest.
They will be the first with children, thanks to their credibility,
ability to pay
, the effort of their universities and, why not, a president who, as a good businessman, risks in his bets with resounding failures or - as with the miners - with outstanding achievements.
PB
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