the three missed chances of getting the Pfizer vaccine, now free

The wait to receive vaccines donated by the United States seemed to run out of steam in the past few hours when it was known what the “basket” who manages this country to deliver to Covax Fund and that the latter in turn distribute them in South America.

Joe Biden’s government has already warned that there will be no AstraZeneca vaccines in the combo (it should be remembered that this vaccine is not licensed in the United States) and that among the possibilities are those of Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer.

The first two are not allowed in Argentina, so the country will not be able to use them until ANMAT gives them the green light. Regarding Pfizer, Argentina approved it (it was the first authorized in the country), but the problem it’s legal.

With this there will be three times our country could losing the chance to receive the Pfizer vaccine. This time, free. Some representatives of the ruling party, who until recently spoke of a mere “obsession” with Pfizer, are now beginning to understand that it is the only vaccine so far. approved for children under 18.

The novel began with the bilateral negotiation between the government and the American laboratory, which finished in shipwreck in 2020. Now, on both sides of the counter, they are saying that negotiations are still open and that there are attempts to get it back afloat.

It’s done the mother of all traps: the possibility of reforming the law on vaccines so that the concept of “negligence” contained therein (the laboratory should make a possible judgment in the event of negligence) is definitely exile. It is not clear if this will be possible.

From this “original flaw” all that followed was unleashed. The blooper of the director of Covax for Latin America this week did more than naked this same problem. Argentina confirmed they wanted Pfizer, but at that time nothing had been done to overcome the legal hurdle.

It’s like wanting to enter a country without a passport. Anyone can say they have a desire to do a certain thing, but if the conditions are not right for it to happen, the desire becomes a formalism. It is not a formalism what they did Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru, who have already concluded their contracts with Pfizer.

The third episode of the saga was known this Friday and has to do with the donation of vaccines that the United States will make. Recipient countries must have the corresponding and adequate legislation in order to receive the doses that are offered. Once again, Argentina is in the same labyrinth.

What Minister Carla Vizzotti envisioned on Wednesday “the obsession with Pfizer” persecute the Argentines. Posed like that, it brings him closer to a pathology psychological than an immune target. That is, the forbidden, which cannot happen, and yet the temptation for it to happen is always at hand.

PS