The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said Monday that it does not oppose private companies buying COVID-19 vaccines and distributing them to patients who want to pay for them.
However, he noted that there are not many supplies and warned companies not to try to buy vaccines that have already been promised to the Mexican government.
“We do not oppose the sale of the vaccine, as companies are able to import it and sell it to those who have to pay for the vaccine,” said López Obrador. “It’s a matter of a vaccine on the world market, because there’s still not enough production.”
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“We would oppose if the ones we contracted are delivered to a private company, we would not allow this, we would denounce it, but it is not the case,” he added.
The Federal Health Commission of Mexico must authorize the use of any vaccine. López Obrador pointed out that, at the moment, no company has requested the import of vaccines privately.
But the problem is certainly already in the public arena, and experts have warned that fakes, fraud and theft could begin to appear amid the public’s desperation to get vaccinated.
Wal-Mart de México, the country’s largest retail store, had to issue a statement Monday to deny an ad circulating online containing a “vaccine” against the coronavirus, allegedly available for about $ 20.
“We clarify that the information disseminated on social networks about the alleged supply of the vaccine against COVID-19 in our units in Mexico is false,” reads the statement published on the company’s Twitter account.
Some people in Mexico have criticized López Obrador for centralizing the purchase and distribution of the vaccine and for putting the vaccination campaign in the hands of the military, as has happened with many other programs of his government.
The president says the military is better equipped to monitor the safety and cooling chain some vaccines need.
He also promised that the vaccines would be free and available to everyone in Mexico, but so far the country has received only about 50,000 doses of the vaccine from Pfizer. To vaccinate 1.4 million health workers, the first of its kind to be vaccinated, Mexico would need 2.8 million doses.
The government is setting its hopes on three vaccines that are already in phase 3 of clinical trials or entering Mexico. He announced that Novavax Inc. will perform some of its tests in Mexico. CanSino of China and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceutical also conducted studies in Mexico.