Endless lines at dawn, scams and deceptions: this is how Venezuela’s chaotic vaccination plan works

For the third time in less than a month, Ms. Josefina Patiño she got up at 2:30 a.m. hoping to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

In April, she signed up for the vaccine, but has yet to be called. She thinks that waking up early is the only thing left for her to access medication.

“I know a lot of people who have been vaccinated, I have friends and neighbors, even relatives. They were vaccinated because they had been in line since dawn or because they had an acquaintance who helped them. Everything works like that here ”, the 66-year-old said.

Patiño went to a vaccination center southwest of Caracas with a friend who was in the same situation. “It was almost 4 am (in the morning) when we arrived and there were already a lot of people. Of course, anyone who doesn’t get the message has to get up early “he explained.

At 8:00 am the center opened, those who had their appointment arrived and “from the one inside”. Those who had not been summoned were still lined up outside.

After 10:00 am, the military officials guarding the premises began to organize the people who did not have tours. The grandmother confided in God when she saw the movement, she began to pray “that today it will touch her”.

“They called me around 11 am, they injected me quickly and that’s it. The other times, I stayed outside. Now to prepare for the second dose because the procedure is the same ”, He happily commented on having received the first batch of Sputnik V.

Stories like Ms. Josefina’s are written every day in vaccination centers in Venezuela. Without appeal, without checks or certificates, dozens of people approach vaccination centers in the hope of being vaccinated.

The critical health system, without resources in public centers and with high costs in private centers, generates such a level of fear among citizens want to be vaccinated at all costs.

“In Venezuela, there are still situations in which the families (of patients) are forced to pledge or sell property, to cover (intensive care) therapies. Since in most centers the requirements are not complete ”, he explained to Infobae the president of the National Academy of Medicine of the Caribbean country, Enrique López Loyo.

DISORGANIZATION

Since the start of the “vaccination plan” in Venezuela in February, independent medical organizations have warned of messy process.

“There is no plan, there is a national vaccination activity”said Dr Jaime Lorenzo, director of the Doctors for Venezuela organization.

For guild spokespersons, Nicolás Maduro’s regime is making a “huge mistake” in the country’s public health by not tracking the number of vaccinated citizens.

“An immunization plan, like any management plan, has objectives, starting points, and ending points. It also has how many people need to be vaccinated, how many people have priority and in what time frame we will carry out this vaccination ”, explained López Loyo.

In Venezuela, the Chavist dictatorship was not clear from the published data regarding the vaccination plan. For him, Scientists fear that “the state itself is raising a free design and being creative” in terms of information and the possible outcomes of the process.

According to reports from medical organizations, COVID-19 vaccines are distributed mainly in Caracas. In inland towns and remote towns, there is still no sign that the vaccination process can begin.

FRAUD

The insufficient dose, the delay of the call and the obvious disorder created in Venezuela the breeding ground for the black market of vaccines, which are in addition to that of food, basic necessities, fuel and all that is administered by the public sector.

Venezuelans, who know they are not protected by an inoperative state and desperate to end the consequences of the pandemic, have resorted to irregular routes to obtain the precious medicine. Anguish made them easy prey for crime.

At the end of June in the state of Lara, in the center-west of the country, the authorities dismantled a bunch of crooks who operated by applying fake vaccines. According to the security forces, the perpetrators charged more than 100 dollars, and some versions claim that up to 500, for injecting the people with boiled water, with a mixture of painkillers and antibiotics.

The combination, which generated a reaction of fever and discomfort in the body, made the deception more believable.

In addition, he was alerted to the formation of bands within health centers which extract vaccines to apply them outside, also by charging large sums of money.

“Many of these dosages are out of use due to the inactivation of the biological product, because they do not respect the cold chain” and the product loses its effectiveness. As Dr López Loyo explained, those who access these supplies run the risk of believing they are immune when they are not.

DECEPTION

In addition to the list of irregularities in the vaccination process, the signing of the contract with Cuba supply the country 12,000,000 doses of the experimental vaccine Abdalá which is not recognized by any international health organization.

The Cuban Dictatorship State Biopharmaceutical Company, BioCubaFarma announced last week the end of the study among 10,000 people in Caracas to whom the formula has been applied.

“In Venezuela, this vaccine candidate has an authorization for use” by the health authoritiessaid the representative of the pharmaceutical company in Caracas, Pedro Almenarez.

The news has been greeted with concern by independent medical groups, which are watching the progress of the inoculation process. The biggest criticism points to the lack of clarity regarding the name of the input, which is treated as a vaccine and not as a drug in the testing phase.

“To perform any study in humans, signed consent and process monitoring are required. Nowhere have we seen people sign documents authorizing the deposit of the biological product on them, so if it is not a hoax it is very similar “said the representative of Médicos Unidos por Venezuela.

In addition to prior consent, there are other aspects of the Cuban vaccine candidate implementation process that are of concern to specialists. For example: How did the process of scientific study of a three-dose drug end, and only the application of the first 10,000 units that arrived in the country two weeks ago was reported?

In the midst of these medical questions, the Chavist dictatorship says it is ready to move forward with phase three of its “vaccination plan”.

Figures from the Miraflores regime, the same that censored the media, persecuted journalists and banned access to public information, have 11,000,000 people vaccinated.

International organizations, which are a benchmark for the veracity of their data, point out that in Venezuela they were only vaccinated 2,284,343 people with the first dose. While less than 1% of the population has the full immunization schedule.

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