Why are Russian vaccines brought on Aerolineas Argentinas planes

Argentina will seek Sputnik V bound for Moscow on special Aerolineas Argentinas flights. Uncertainty over delays in delivery of third batch of Russian vaccines has filled social media with phrases such as “the world’s most expensive freight”, which haunt the question of why they are not being used international carriers to supply the country with doses.

DHL, the world’s largest parcel company, plays a key role in distributing coronavirus vaccines around the world. On December 15, 2020, it reached its full potential when it began air transport and land distribution of doses of Pfizer and Moderna in Israel, a country that has successfully vaccinated 2 million people in three weeks. And today, more than 10 European countries use this German carrier service to deliver vaccines, with 50 express freight flights that allow deliveries to be made within 24 hours.

The controversy took off when the Aerolineas Argentinas plane that was due to leave for Russia on Sunday to transport the cargo never took off. “It will be postponed as soon as possible once we have the confirmation of all the actors involved in the logistics chain that allows the transfer of vaccines,” Pablo Ceriani, president of the national airline, reported on his Twitter account.

From Aerolineas Argentinas they explain to Bugle details of why vaccines are transported this way and not, for example, by carriers. “The demand for it is from the government. We are not dealing with planes that are just cargo. With these resources that we have, these passenger planes, they are asking us to do the flights. In the warehouse. , we can carry up to 600,000 vaccines and we can modify the plane to move more in the cabin, ”they specify.

The plane is an Airbus A330-200 which, although on this flight it will not undergo the modifications made when traveling to China to bring medical supplies, it could carry up to 1 million vaccines in the cabin if available to seats had intervened.

The health ministry said the reasons for the delay were due to logistical problems. “This type of operation requires coordinated work to maintain safety in each of the stages, and until each of them is confirmed, it is not possible to start with the one that suits us: the cargo flight. Ceriani explained of the delay.

Besides Europe, DHL also supplies vaccines to two countries in our region: Chile and Mexico (both supplied by Pfizer). Not in Argentina.

This happens with Sputnik vaccines, the only ones that reach the country and are distributed in Andreani’s trucks. The distribution of doses of Pfizer, for example, in Europe, is totally different.

Pfizer has its largest manufacturing plant in Belgium and even uses its own trucks, in the sense that it has specially rented and traced them with the lab’s mark, so that they reach France, the Netherlands and Germany. , among other countries. In Spain, for example, the army was scheduled to distribute the vaccines brought by Pfizer with its trucks from a warehouse which are collected under the ultra-cold necessary for their conservation.