[ad_1]
A few weeks before Christmas, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro made a big announcement about his plans to fight the coronavirus. Its vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, had just returned from Moscow with seasonal news of comfort and joy in connection with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.
“We have secured more than 10 million doses of vaccines during the first quarter of next year,” Maduro assured the nation. “Our goal is for at least ten million vaccines to be produced in January, February, March, April or May.”
The reality has proven a little different, as Maduro’s government struggles to get enough doses to cover even the most vulnerable of its people.
There is no sign that Beijing or Moscow will give preferential treatment to their socialist ally. Venezuela has received 380,000 of these Russian doses (only 3.8% of what the president promised) and 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China.
It has vaccinated only 1% of its population, the lowest share of any nation in South America. At this rate, it will take more than a decade to achieve herd immunity.
“Neither Russia nor China is offering Maduro the help he would like in this difficult time, because they have other priorities,” said Dimitris Pantoulas, a political analyst in Caracas. “And besides, Maduro just doesn’t have the money to pay them. It is a big problem for both Venezuela and Maduro. The country is becoming a secondary priority for the Russians. “
Mature he says he has things under control. Last month, his government surprised many by saying it had found $ 120 million to pay for more than 11 million doses of vaccines. the Covax mechanism, created by the World Health Organization and its partners to help poorer countries access Covid drugs. That should be enough to vaccinate 20% of the population.
The cash government did not say where it had found the money, although Maduro said it was “released from the blockade,” suggesting that somehow the funds had been released from sources that previously had foreign sanctions. He said the source of the money will be clear “in time.”
The announcement seemed to capture U.S.-backed opposition, led by Joan Guaidó, Unattended. He had also promised to pay for the vaccines, using money from Venezuelan bank accounts in the U.S. frozen under the Washington sanctions regime.
Guaidó’s team had been talking to the Maduro government (a rarity in itself) about how to properly pay for, import, and store vaccines, but talks stalled when Maduro said he would not accept doses of AstraZeneca due to of fears for blood clots.
Shortly afterwards, the government announced its unilateral payment of Covax and negotiations vanished.
“The government stole a march against the opposition,” a Venezuelan political scientist told the Financial Times. “It’s all about perception and the way the government handled the issue left the opposition out of the cold.”
Guaidó seems determined to ensure that the same thing does not happen again. Since then approved the release of $ 100 million from frozen bank accounts under his control in the US to pay for future vaccines.
In the meantime, Health workers in Venezuela they are increasingly frustrated by drug shortages and the lack of a coherent vaccination plan.
“Where I live, no one has been vaccinated and in less than a month a dozen residents have died,” said Irma Madriz, 62, who has worked in Venezuela’s public health system for 35 years.
“I want the vaccines to arrive, but I want them for everyone,” he said when he joined a small group of health workers and opposition politicians who staged a protest in Caracas on April 17 demanding the government action.
“With the doses that have arrived so far, at least 300,000 health workers could have been vaccinated,” said Ana Contreras, president of the Caracas College of Nurses. “It’s very serious that front-line workers are not protected.”
The arguments continue how many Venezuelans they contracted coronavirus and died.
The government has recorded 192,000 cases and a barely credible death toll of 2,065 of the 28 million inhabitants. That is, 74 deaths per million people, far less than any other major Latin American nation. In Brazil and Peru, the figure exceeds 1,800 per million.
Last year, a New York-based NGO, Human Rights Watch, said Covid’s official figures in Venezuela were “absolutely absurd and unbelievable.” The Institute of Metrics and Health Assessment, a research center at the University of Washington, recently estimated the number of new Covid cases in Venezuela more than six times higher than official figures.
Meanwhile, Maduro relies on two Cuban vaccines, Soberano-2 and Abdala, both in phase 3 clinical trials, and a second Russian vaccine, EpiVacCorona.
In that pre-Christmas speech, the president promised that “Venezuela will make the Russian vaccine [Sputnik] here in the Venezuelan laboratories ”. He has since promised that his country will also manufacture Cuban vaccines.
“Needless to say, there is no sign of this happening,” political analyst Pantoulas said.
[ad_2]
Source link
