Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The Minister of Health of Argentina, Ginés González García, resigned at the request of President Alberto Fernández, after it was revealed that his relatives had been vaccinated against covid-19 in his office, without having to request an appointment like the other Argentines.
“In response to your express request, I am resigning as Minister of Health,” González García wrote this Friday in a letter to the president.
Carla Vizzotti, a 48-year-old internal medicine specialist who will be sworn in on Saturday afternoon, has been appointed secretary of health access.
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Vizzoti stood out for obtaining the Russian Sputnik V vaccine for Argentina, the first country in America to approve and use it. González García, 75, who had already been in charge of that portfolio during the government of Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), took office in December 2019 and had to deal with the entire coronavirus pandemic.
Its leadership, with ups and downs, was certainly affected by the “privileged” vaccinations at the headquarters of the Ministry of Health, which met on the same day that the city of Buenos Aires allowed the request for online exchanges for vaccination of people over 80 years. starting next Monday, a mechanism that collapsed almost immediately in the face of enormous demand.
So far, in Argentina, only medical personnel have been vaccinated. Vaccination of people over the age of 70 in the province of Buenos Aires began on Wednesday.
“Immorality”
The scandal erupted after journalist Horacio Verbitsky said on the radio on Friday that, due to his long friendship with the minister, he could be vaccinated in his office.
“I decided to get vaccinated. I started to find out where to do it. I called my old friend, Ginés González García, whom I met long before he was minister,” said Verbitsky, aged 71 years old.
The scandal caused a cataract of reactions on social media sub hashtag #vacunasvip. In addition to Verbitsky, other people close to the government were vaccinated at the Ministry of Health, according to local media.
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González García emphasized in his resignation letter that “the vaccinated people belong to the groups included in the target population of the current campaign”, referring to those over 70 years of age.
In addition to his work as a journalist, Verbitsky also runs the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), dedicated to human rights.
Roberto Navarro, the owner of Uncover Radio, the station where Verbitsky revealed his vaccination, announced that he had canceled his collaborations. “It is immoral that 50,000 people have been vaccinated VIP. It is immoral who authorized it and who was vaccinated,” Navarro wrote on Twitter.
CELS employees also condemned the fact. “I received the news that the president of our organization was vaccinated outside the established system, through a chain of favors and in a personal capacity (…) The CELS team of workers rejects this action or any other action or privilege,” he posted on Stare of nervousness.
vaccination began in late December with Sputnik V, from the Russian laboratory Gamaleya, but the process is much slower than initially anticipated due to the lack of doses.
President Fernández and Vice President Cristina Kirchner were among the first to receive the vaccine. Both over the age of 60 did it before the cameras to convey confidence in the vaccine.
To date, Argentina has received 1,220,000 doses of Sputnik V and 580,000 doses of Covishield from the Indian Serum Institute, the latter arriving on Wednesday.
The plan subsequently includes vaccines from Oxford / AstraZeneca, until the end of this year 62 million doses of different contracts, including one with the Covax international cooperation mechanism.