Fraud, theft, illegal transportation and VIP lists are the new “variants” of the pandemic that stains vaccination against covid-19 in an America that, in addition to redoubled efforts against the disease, must now fight to stop the irregularities.
As if the continent’s more than 50 million people infected with coronavirus are few, the slowdown in the vaccination process in most countries in February has joined growing complaints about “missing” doses and immunized politicians, despite the fact that they are not health workers or the elderly.
“More than illegality, what is deeply rooted in society is corruption and high flexibility in the face of this scourge,” sociologist Carlos Charry told Efe.
Unfortunately, the director of the master’s degree in social studies at the University of Rosario in Columbia explained, “most anti-corruption measures have tried to strengthen punitive actions and not so much social control factors and especially ethics in the individual where corruption becomes. allowed “.
Aerial vaccines in Brazil
February 26, 2020 will be an unforgettable date in Latin America. That day, Brazil confirmed the first case of covid-19 in Sao Paulo and since then the pandemic has set in in the region.
In the last week of February, the scandal broke out in four cities across the country after relatives of elderly people reported that health professionals inserted the needle into the arms of their relatives but did not inject the drug.
A video recorded in the city of Petrópolis, in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, in which an elderly woman is observed receiving an injection with an empty syringe aroused indignation and forced both the Ministry of Health and the police to investigate.
In Niteroi, also in Rio de Janeiro, the police accused of embezzlement, a crime that involves sentences of up to 12 years in prison, a nurse who “knowingly” did not administer the vaccine to a 90-year-old woman and replied ” ironically ”when questioned by the patient’s family, according to Commissioner Luiz Henrique Pereira.
The “vaccination” in Argentina and Peru
The privileged vaccination of various power figures in Argentina is another “pearl” in the necklace of irregularities in America.
The case came to light when 79-year-old journalist Horacio Verbitsky, who was related to the government, revealed that he had been vaccinated without waiting for his turn because he asked his “old friend” Ginés González García, then head of the Ministry of Health.
The event led to the resignation of González, who was charged, as well as his nephew, Lisandro Bonelli, who served as chief of staff of the ministry, for offenses of abuse of authority, breach of office and embezzlement of public funds. .
The spark, already burning, led the press to ensure that, in addition to Verbitsky, there were politicians, trade unionists and businessmen close to the government of President Alberto Fernández and even relatives of some of them already vaccinated.
Due to the controversy, the new Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, published the list of 70 vaccinated people, including the head of state, whose inoculation was reported on January 21, ministers and other officials and people without public office, such as Vertbisky.
In defending his government, Fernández described the scandal as a “clown” because, in his opinion, “there is no crime in Argentina that says that anyone who vaccinates someone who has advanced in a row will be punished.”
Something similar is happening in Peru, where the so-called “vaccinated” allowed 487 people to receive vaccines that were intended for staff who conducted clinical trials in the country.
Although the list includes doctors and scientists, there are officials from the last two governments, including former President Martín Vizcarra (2018-2020), their relatives, consultants and “guests”.
As for Vizcarra, Congress has announced it will lift his political disqualification, while transitional President Francisco Sagasti acknowledged the “hard blow” this situation means, as the former health minister is now among those vaccinated. Pilar Mazzetti and former Foreign Minister Elizabeth Astete.
Mazzetti led the fight against the pandemic and recently said she would be “last” vaccinated in Peru, despite receiving the two doses last January, and Astete was in charge of negotiating the purchase of the vaccines.
There is illegal transportation and missing vaccines in Colombia
Colombia, which began vaccination a week ago, confiscated on February 13 at Bogota’s El Dorado Airport, 70 doses of covid-19 that a woman arriving on a flight from the United Arab Emirates tried to between illegally safe.
In this regard, the Ministry of Health stated that it is the only entity in charge of importing coronavirus vaccines and that, in due course, it will establish when and which legal and private persons can import, market and apply immunizers.
Another anomaly has to do with the loss of 15 doses of vaccines in different parts of the coffee nation, as denounced by the Comptroller General, who has already defined “various actions to determine what happened” to biological substances that “were not applied and does not occur “.
US and Canada do not get rid of “vaccine tourism”
In the US state of Florida, those over 65, who are a priority for vaccination, have faced so-called “vaccine tourism,” as well as possible political favoritism from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The media offers stories of tourists, especially Argentines, who visited Florida for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, but not for its beaches and shopping malls.
Although DeSantis said he would not allow the practice, criticism has been rife since he announced vaccinations in Lakewood Ranch, a “rich” area with a low incidence of covid-19 and the headquarters of a company that donated to “900,000 dollars “, according to the democratic congressman Charlie Crist.
Another who opted for “vaccine tourism” was Mark Machin, CEO of CPP Investments, the entity that manages the investments of Canada’s largest public pension fund and one of the largest in the world.
Machin resigned on Friday from his post after The Wall Street Journal reported that he had traveled to Dubai to be vaccinated without informing Canadian authorities.
In this regard, the Canadian Ministry of Finance applauded the “swift action” of the CFP’s board of directors and described Machin’s behavior as “disappointing”.
Also, as if the pandemic were a joke, two women “dressed as grandparents” tried to get vaccinated with the second dose of covid-19 in Florida.
“I don’t know how they managed to get vaccinated for the first time, but they came with gloves, glasses, everything and they are probably 20 years old,” Raúl Pino, a health official from Orange County, denounced in horror.
And, as the sociologist Carlos Charry explained to Efe, “in moral terms there is a lack of awareness about the effect that situations like the ones mentioned above have on society.”
In fact, for some historians, corruption in America, especially in Latin America, “has its origins in the way colonial society was formed, highly hierarchical, even because of racial problems.”
This, Charry said, “generated a number of privileges that have indiscriminately been maintained over time” and lead some to believe that they are superior to others “because of the color of the skin, the economic level or ancestors ”, even in times of pandemic.