Two Aerolineas planes have already landed in the United States pending the donation of vaccines from Moderna | This shipment could be intended for the vaccination of under 18s

In the coming hours, Argentina will receive more than three million doses of Moderna, from Memphis, United States, part of Joe Biden’s administrative donation. This new shipment, which means a strengthening of the national vaccination campaign – which already has more than 30 million vaccines – could be intended for the start of vaccination of under 18s.

The two flights of Aerolineas Argentinas, AR 1096 and AR 1098, they are already at the Memphis city airport, the first one arrived at 5:30 am this Thursday while the second arrived at 7:52 pm, ready to load the vaccines that will be given.

In principle, according to the provisional schedule, the crew will begin to cool the plane in the morning of this Friday to load the lots into the cellars a few hours later. This is a necessary procedure to prevent a possible thermal shock due to the change in temperature between the trucks and the aircraft from affecting the storage of vaccines.

For the moment, there is no confirmed schedule since First, Joe Biden’s administration must make official vaccine delivery announcement in Argentina. However, Aerolineas Argentinas flights are expected to return to the country in the afternoon, landing in Ezeiza at dawn on Saturday.

The conditions of the donation are not known either, but according to rumors circulating in Washington, there could be more than 3 million vaccines. Serious one of the largest transfers of doses carried out to date by the country of the North, but the truth will be known at the time of the announcement. So far, Mexico has received 1,350,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson; in Colombia were 2,500,000 doses of the same vaccine, while the donation announced for Bolivia and Paraguay sent one million doses to each country.

Adolescents, the next step

the Moderna vaccines have a primary interest of the national government in what will be the next step: to vaccinate under 18. So far, only Pfizer is authorized in other countries for children, and Sinopharm which applies only in China. As, Moderna is the closest to being allowed in the United States and Europe to begin vaccinating minors.

This is why the Presidency has accelerated the agreement by 20 million for 2022 (intended to function as a “reinforcement), and published the DNU a few days ago in view of the US donation.

In addition, It is likely that in the next few days the authorization of the Angat para Moderna will be published. In principle, only apply to adults, and once the US approves it for minors, they will move quickly to approve it for this age group as well..

The whole process will take several days, with the vaccines already in Argentina. It remains to be seen what the Ministry of Health will decide: await approval for minors and start vaccination in adolescents aged 11 to 18, or use the millions of doses given to the elderly while waiting and accelerate the vaccination of the general population.

Beyond the quantities and range to be vaccinated, the hard fact is that Argentina will receive millions of additional doses to further strengthen the vaccination process. Every step of the way, he gets closer to the goal of reaching unprecedented levels of immunization before spring arrives.