“Vacunagate” in Peru: Confirmed 487 people took advantage of their position to secretly receive the dose against COVID-19

The President of Peru, Francisco Sagasti, confirmed this Monday evening that 487 people had been vaccinated “unofficially”, including senior officials and officials, who “took advantage of their position to be vaccinated with Sinopharm vaccines”.

Sagasti addressed the nation accompanied by the President of the Council of Ministers, Violeta Bermúdez, and reiterated his “indignation and disappointment at having known that 487 people, including many civil servants, had taken advantage of his position to vaccinate with the Sinopharm vaccines that they came in addition to those used in clinical trials in our country, ”reported Agencia Andina.

Sagasti noted that all those involved in this irregular act will be separated from their functions because “they have no place in this government” and assured that the executive will continue negotiations to arrive at vaccines to immunize the entire population.

Among those who received the inoculation without their correspondent include the former Minister of Health Pilar Mazzetti, who denied having received it a few days ago, and Elizabeth Astete External Relations, who resigned yesterday after admitting to being vaccinated.

According to the information to which he had access Trade, Mazzetti was vaccinated in mid-January of this year and received the second dose on February 6 at the facilities of the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH), according to sources in the Sinopharm trial program. Peruvian media called the scandal a “vacunagate”.

Yes indeed, Mazzetti received Sinopharm vaccine before arrival of first batch of coronavirus vaccines, which landed on February 7 in the Andean country.

Another of those involved was former President Martín Vizcarra, who received the vaccine in October, weeks before he was fired by Congress in a flash impeachment trial, while Mazzetti and Astete were immunized in January. .

The ex-president claimed to have been “voluntary” in the Chinese vaccine trial, before he was given the green light on December 31, but Cayetano Heredia University denied it.

Vizcarra, que dejó el poder con un alto nivel de aprobación, pidió este moons “exonerated” a sus compatriotas “por no haber informado de ese hecho en ese momento”, pero insistió en que fue volunario del ensayo, igual que su esposa y un brother.

“I submit to investigations (from the prosecution) in order to clarify this situationHe added, denying that he had ‘lied’ or committed a crime.

In this regard, Sagasti showed a “deep sense of pain, because these people who were part of our transitional and emergency government, were failing in their duty as civil servants and in their loyalty to the President of the Council of Ministers. and me”.

After admitting on Sunday that former Deputy Minister of Public Health Luis Suárez y Astete had received the vaccine, Minister of Health Óscar Ugarte announced on Monday that the government opened an investigation into the allegedly “unofficial” vaccination practiced by senior officials, who had made a series of deals with pharmaceutical companies to get vaccinated surreptitiously.

As Ugarte told the RPP station a few hours before, “the first version of the Ministry of Health can be between 15 and 20 vaccinated”.

The president confirmed that the list of people who have benefited from the vaccine will be sent to the Comptroller General of the Republic, the prosecution, the Attorney General’s office and the commission of inquiry formed by Ugarte so that the corresponding actions can be taken.

The political storm started on Thursday led to a hurricane on Sunday, when Chancellor Astete admitted he had been vaccinated and resigned.

“The resignation of the minister (…) is a very important political event. Vizcarra and Sagasti’s opponents somehow win“Before the April 11 elections, he told the AFP analyst Luis Benavente.

Astete, replaced on Monday by former foreign minister Allan Wagner, resigned two days after Mazzetti, who had been head of health since Vizcarra’s time.

Eight officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are among the vaccinatedSaid Wagner.

Astete’s revelation has placed the Sagasti government at the center of the controversy.

On Sunday, we knew that Sinopharm had delivered 3,200 additional doses to Peru, apart from those of the 12,000 volunteers.

The Chinese embassy said on Monday that it “does not have information on the identity of those vaccinated,” since the trial was conducted by Peruvian universities, and rejected the use of “terms such as courtesy vaccines, donations or benefits “used by the Peruvian media. .

This scandal erupted at the start of the electoral campaign. It was christened “Vacunagate” and left no Peruvian politician indifferent.

The affair monopolizes the media and social networks, without however mobilizing citizens in the street. Half of Peru, including Lima, is confined in February by the second wave of the pandemic, in which infections and deaths have quadrupled compared to December.

Although in other countries presidents and officials have been vaccinated in public to set an example, in Peru, the criticisms relate to the fact that certain authorities received the doses in advance and without communicating them.

“It’s a more ethical question. You and your family cannot get vaccinated (…) when there are people on the front lines, doctors, who have died, ”worker Anaís Rojas told AFP.

Sagasti, 76, was vaccinated in public on the first day of vaccination for health workers, last Tuesday, when he encouraged Peruvians to do so.

The Peruvian president and the heads of other public authorities (legislative, judicial, prosecution and controller, among others) have promised “to conduct the corresponding investigations”, in a joint statement on Monday.

The Andean country currently has one million doses of the Chinese vaccine, of which around 77,000 have been applied to health workers. There is still no start date for vaccination for the rest of the population.

Despite the criticisms of those vaccinated, there is no consensus among legal scholars whether they have committed a crime or simply an ethical fault.

However, the question threatens to stop “support for Vizcarra (who is seeking a seat in Congress) and for presidential candidate Julio Guzmán, of the centrist Sagasti party, according to Benavente.

With 33 million, Peru has 43,703 deaths from covid-19, with 1.23 million confirmed cases.

With information from Europa Press, EFE and AFP

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