Argentina manages to have only 10% of the vaccines it thought and what can happen by March

Contracts between countries and laboratories for the purchase of vaccines appear to be a mere formalism during the coronavirus pandemic, an abstraction of uncertain material support. The problem affects the world, although some countries more than others. This is demonstrated by the results obtained so far by Argentina: of the 20 million doses that were to be received between January and February, only 1,800,000 would arrive. This means that the vaccines we thought we had will arrive less than one in ten.

With this hurdle, plus the delays of other contracts that could have worked as containment netArgentina does not finish starting with a vaccination campaign massive, as have some countries in the region, such as Chile and Brazil. Especially in the Chilean case, the difference is very noticeable: vaccinated over a million people in one week. Argentina, on the other hand, vaccinated a bit more half a million in 40 days.

There is a big disconnect between Argentina’s expectations – the amount of doses the government has announced it plans to receive – and what is actually happening. On January 18, the most optimistic scenario evoked 5 million vaccines by January and 14.7 million for February, which added to the 300,000 doses that arrived in the country in December.

That horizon changed after Russia warned that the Gamaleya Institute could not comply with the planned obligationsthey said due to production delays. So much so that to date Argentina has already 820 thousand doses distributed in the territory, plus a new batch arriving this Thursday on an Aerolineas Argentinas plane: 400,000 additional doses, for a total of 1,220,000.

Last week there were two news: a good and a bad. On the one hand, the Covax solidarity fund announced that the country would receive 2.2 million vaccines in the first half of 2021, when government expectations 9 million in the same period. As a rescue, but without settling this big difference, the AstraZeneca laboratory will bring Argentina 580,000 doses of his vaccine in February and the same amount in March.

Without counting the vaccines from the Covax fund, whose arrival is expected in the first half of the year but without a specific month, the total doses that the country would have until the end of February would be slightly less than two million. This reduced firing capacity against Covid makes the national vaccination campaign, obviously, to become much slower.

There was still no official confirmation, moreover, on the possibility of adding a batch of one million Chinese Sinopharm vaccines, which President Alberto Fernández negotiates personally with the Asian country. China, as it happened, wants Argentina to commit to 30 million doses And not just for that first million. But our country would claim that the price is lower than required.

On the Pfizer side, although both the lab and the government have repeatedly stated that negotiations are continuing, no further progress has been made so far. The differences seem insurmountable, to the point that the Minister of Health himself, Ginés González García, has said in recent days that he feels A big disappointment. Other aspirations, the results of which have not yet been communicated, are the possible agreements with Janssen, Sinovac and Moderna.

As of today, according to the file from the Our World in Data website, Argentina has provided doses against Covid to 1.14 percent of its population, while Brazil managed to inoculate 1.8 percent and Chile at 5.58 percent. On this list, Israel remains in the lead at 67.38% and the United Arab Emirates with 45.77%. The UK is up 19.39% and the US is at almost 13%. The average for European countries is between 3 and 6 percent.

Regarding the daily vaccination rate, The United Arab Emirates lead the rankings, by vaccinating 1.48 per hundred inhabitants, while in Israel this index is 1.17. Chile has succeeded in being among the countries which vaccinate its population the most, with 0.74% per 100 people per day. Argentina saw a slight improvement, but is in the 0.04 percent. That is 18 times less than the trans-Andean country. In most countries of the region, the outlook is the same, if not bleaker.

The immediate future opens a question mark, although it is estimated that the local situation could start to improve towards the end of March, when new lots entered by AstraZeneca They should arrive in the country and eventually the Russian production problems will be unblocked. On top of that, the possibility of further announcements on deals that, for now, are still delayed is still open.

PS