The United States has confirmed that it is negotiating with the government to send vaccines against the coronavirus

The Senior Director for the Western Hemisphere of the National Security Council, Juan Gonzalez, assured this afternoon that the government of Joseph Biden evaluates the proposal of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Felipe Solá on how to transport vaccines the United States wing Argentina, as part of the operation that the White House plans to “share” the doses with Latin America and contribute to the inoculation of its population, in principle, from July. Although he still has not provided details on the date and criteria for establishing the quantity of doses that will be destined for the country, confirmed that discussions on moving the injections are ongoing.

On Monday, from Ecuador, where he attended as Argentina’s representative at the inauguration of Guillermo Lasso Mendoza, Solá reported via his Twitter account that he had held a meeting in Quito with the US Ambassador to of ONU, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and with President Biden’s advisor González. “We talked about the serious health situation we are going through and I told them that our planes were ready to leave to find vaccines”, the chancellor said, and shared a picture of the meeting.

Thomas-Greenfield, González, and Acting Under-Secretary of State, Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Department of State, Julie Chung, led the US delegation to Ecuador for the inauguration of Lasso, and This afternoon, they gave a press conference call from Washington with local media, as a balance on the visit. During the virtual meeting, they discussed other issues related to US relations with the Latin American region, in the context of the pandemic. Among them, the distribution of vaccines.

During the conference, which lasted half an hour, they were consulted on Solá’s proposal that Argentina help with the logistics for shipping vaccines to Argentina. “During the conversation with Solá, various issues related to the pandemic were discussed,” González replied. “Argentina now has the highest infection rate in the world, and we say we must work together to respond to the pandemic”added the representative of the United States for the region.

“Certainly one of the challenges will be shipping the vaccines, and they (for the Argentine government) have made that offer. WE we promised to consult them closely, as the President (Biden) moves forward, with the administration, to share vaccines, and to increase production, also in the face of future pandemics, ”he added. He also recalled that “Argentina has an agreement with Mexico to produce vaccines there”. “There are many conversations going on that we will respond to,” he concluded, without providing further details.

The government, concerned about lack of vaccines and delay in vaccination plan, has been enthusiastic since President Biden announced months ago that the United States would donate 80 million doses in the region, the majority of which –60 million – will come from Oxford-AstraZeneca and the rest – 20 million – from other American laboratories such as Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson.

But the shipping process is still being worked out and facing the second wave of infections, which takes place four months before the legislative elections, The Alberto Fernández administration is seeking to speed up talks to receive large-scale doses as much as possible. The government wants to know the delivery date, as well as the criteria that will be applied to calculate the number of doses destined for Argentina – they seek to be based on the number of cases, not on the density of housing in the country, that it would represent less vaccines; and proposes to contribute to the shipping method by reproducing the mechanism it already uses, for example with Russia, to import doses of Sputnik V.

The amount and method of distribution, declared from the United States, will be decided with the World Health Organization, via the Covax mechanism for the “equitable” distribution of vaccines. But, as González confirmed this afternoon, they could also be agreements between states. They would be made in the form of loans that each country would then have to repay.

A week ago the Argentine Ambassador to the United States Jorge Argüello meets with White House International Policy Coordinator Gayle Smith, and gave Alberto Fernández information that sowed optimism within the government: He told her that the donations could start in six weeks. For now, there are no definitions, but in the fight against the clock against the coronavirus, for Alberto Fernández every signal counts.

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