After the whereabouts of Pfizer, Santiago Cafiero confirmed that Argentina could have chosen COVAX vaccines and opted for AstraZeneca vaccines

In the answer to question 269, the Chief of Staff of the Nation Santiago Cafeiero He endorses in his management report before the National Congress, information that TN.com.ar revealed on Wednesday, June 2: Argentina can select the type of vaccine from the COVAX availability catalog.

// According to the director of Covax, the government refused to receive Pfizer vaccines through this mechanism.

The controversy over whether or not the country can choose which vaccines it receives through COVAX began after Santiago cornejo, director of the agency for Latin America, assured that Argentina had rejected the doses of Pfizer through this mechanism whose objective is the equitable distribution of the serum. A few hours after these remarks, the Minister of Health of the Nation published a press release in which it denied the executive and specified that the agreement “did not guarantee” to be able to select the provider.

However, on April 26, 2021 TN.com.ar received a response to a request for access to public information in which the Ministry of Health of the Nation itself detailed that Argentina could choose the type of vaccine from the COVAX availability catalog and that initially “they had opted for those of AstraZeneca”. Cafiero’s response confirms the data disclosed by this means.

The question of this medium at the time was as follows: inform if the government / ministry of health has the option to select the type of vaccine they will receive.

“The Argentine Republic can select the type of vaccine from the availability catalog offered by COVAX. To date, Argentina has initially opted for AstraZeneca vaccine doses“, They explained in the document signed by José Eduardo Gonzalez Aguada, head of the General Directorate of External Funding Projects.

// “That’s a tiny detail”: Carla Vizzotti’s explanation of why Pfizer vaccines did not arrive from the Covax fund

The answer given by Cafiero was identical to that reproduced in the previous paragraph. What is striking is that on Wednesday morning, after the scandal of Cornejo’s remarks, the Minister of Health of the Nation Carla Vizzotti accepted that the media’s request for access to public information “spoke the truth” Yes that was “A minimal detail”, but seconds later he argued that “Argentina did not choose AstraZeneca”.

“They both say it (for the truth)”, assured Vizzotti about the question of Nicolás Gallardo, columnist of CNN, who had questioned him about the differences between the response to the request for access to public information to which he had acceded TN.com.ar and the declaration of the Ministry of Health of the Nation.

“What Argentina has done is choose all the options and succeed in moving forward with AstraZeneca and not with Pfizer because of this bilateral situation,” added the head of the Health portfolio and added immediately after: “We did not choose AstraZeneca, we were able to sign this contract and not that of Pfizer so I just explained”.

Vizzotti had just assured that the country did not accept the arrival of Pfizer vaccines via this mechanism because the country had not reached a consensus on the terms of compensation and liability of the laboratory.

Covax is the mechanism promoted by the WHO to ensure equitable access for all countries to the vaccine against the coronavirus. His responsible for Latin America assured that the government had asked not to receive Pfizer.

In fact, the writing that revealed TN.com.ar does not claim that the country has rejected the doses of Pfizer, as Cornejo initially claimed, but contradicts the press release issued by the Health portfolio itself.

Is it according to aqueous, the health ministry could choose the vaccines, which corresponds to the explanation of Cornejo, which had indicated Tuesday morning that Argentina adhered to the optional purchase. “So before we sign an agreement with each pharmaceutical company, we give the country a chance to decide whether it wants us to add demand to that agreement,” the official said. To these affirmations is added that of Cafiero, which is coupled with this hypothesis. The three answers agree, but not the health declaration which was sent Tuesday around midnight.

Indeed, in the early hours of Wednesday, the nation’s health authorities worked to deactivate the bomb that Cornejo had just denounced. During those hours, this official wrote a letter in which he clarified his statements and explained that “Argentina intended to receive the Pfizer vaccine”. The letter was read by Vizzotti during the press conference.

// Details of the email Covax director sent to Carla Vizzotti to clarify her comments on Pfizer

TN.com.ar I had been following the case for a long time. An official Health source told this media that AstraZeneca doses were selected for logistical reasonsbecause these can be stored at a much lower temperature than that of Pfizer. In addition, the country had signed an agreement with AstraZeneca UK Limited for 22,400,000 doses of this serum, which would thus be supplemented by those received through this mechanism.

This media contacted Vizzotti’s portfolio on Wednesday morning to get their side of the story. Official spokespersons responded: “This requires producing the response, which will be sent when it is ready. It is not contradictory anyway, the COVAX mechanism is very complex ”. At the end of this note, the answer had not yet arrived.