• Pandemic Political scandal in Argentina: the president fires the Minister of Health after discovering a 'VIP vaccination' in the Ministry

There is a good that is scarce in Argentina, as in much of the world: the vaccine against Covid-19.

And there is an evil that is widespread in the country, the political and moral disregard, which led to the fact that while hundreds of thousands of Argentines tried to reserve an appointment to vaccinate their parents or grandparents, on the second floor of the Ministry of Health of the Nation a "VIP vaccination" will work.

A secret place to immunize politicians, trade unionists, businessmen and friends of power in general.

The names that are known are still few, but the list will grow in what is the biggest scandal in the 14 months of the government of Peronist Alberto Fernández.

"To some extent we are the envy of the world,"

Fernández had said in the first months of 2020 when Argentina was singled out as a successful case of pandemic control.

If it was, it no longer is.

Although Fernández forced his Minister of Health, Ginés González García, to resign on Friday, the decision to place his number two, Carla Vizotti, in office could be dangerous for the president: could the new minister not know what was happening in the building you worked in?

Could he ignore that vaccines were stored there that had to be in hospitals and immunization centers?

Were you unaware that González García vaccinated personal friends and even his nephew at the Ministry?

Prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan has already filed a criminal complaint against the former minister.

Argentines had suspected that vaccines had become merchandise for many politicians: reports abounded that Peronist mayors from various small cities decided to vaccinate themselves and their wives, children, allies and political activists in their early twenties.

It was just the smaller-scale model of what was happening at the Ministry of Health, which either vaccinated directly, or let friends know where to go to ensure immunization.

It is estimated that Argentina must vaccinate some 30 million people to control the pandemic.

So far there are only 633,000 vaccinated.

Chile, a neighboring country, immunized 12.14% of its population.

Argentina, which has not yet vaccinated all its medical personnel and is very slowly beginning to do so with the elderly, only 0.92.

The problem is not only the number of vaccinated, but the quality of the process.

"Vaccines disappeared, batches were discarded because they lost their cold chain, the ruling party was accused of politicizing vaccination, and the opposition presented a project to modify the Penal Code in order to penalize the violation of the order of beneficiaries," the newspaper said. 'The nation'.

The way the scandal broke out continues to be a matter of analysis for politicians, journalists and the general population.

Very loose of body, Horacio Verbitsky, a veteran journalist known for investigations that complicated power, said that he took advantage of precisely that, of his relationship with power, to call the minister and get vaccinated.

Hypotheses abound.

One, bold, points out that it was Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner who used her ally Verbitsky to continue grinding down Fernández's power.

Another indicates that Verbitsky decided to vaccinate himself to set fire to others and anticipate an investigation by 'Clarín', which was on the trail of the 'VIP Vaccination'.

If Fernández de Kirchner promotes the vaccine from the Gamaleya Institute of Russia, which is the one that Argentines are receiving, the minister entered into friction with the vice president, because he favored AstraZeneca.

And there is a third hypothesis that combines the first and second to shape a conspiracy of scale.

Among those vaccinated with privilege is the Spanish businessman Florencio Aldrey Iglesias, owner of countless businesses in Mar del Plata, the main tourist center in the country.

'Clarín' quotes this Saturday an angry Fernández about Aldrey:

"No one notices that a rich man, owner of half of Mar del Plata, managed to get vaccinated himself and his whole family. A shame

.

"

No phrases were known from the president about the vaccination of Hugo Moyano, the most powerful union leader in the country, and his family.

Fernández did react instead to the information of the clandestine vaccination of two legislators close to him who were supposed to accompany him on a trip to Mexico: he got them off the plane.

Federico Tiberti, an Argentine who is studying a master's degree in Political Science in the United States at Princeton University, had noticed weeks ago a data that was derived from official information: of the 300,000 doses available at that time, 3,100 had vanished .

No one knew where they were, and Tiberti attributed it to statistical rounding ("300,000 sounds better than 296,900").

It was not like that, they were 300,000.

And as of this week it is already much clearer where those 3,100 missing may have been circulating.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Argentina

  • Mexico

  • U.S

  • Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

  • chili

  • Alberto Fernandez

  • Coronavirus

  • Vaccines

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