Martin Vizcarra, former President of the Republic, has been in the news again during the first days of 2022 but not because of investigations against him, but because he returned to test positive for COVID-19 for the second time in less than a year.
Vizcarra Cornejo is an exceptional case due to the chronology that his case has followed at the time of receiving vaccines, both inside and outside the official programs to inoculate citizens against the coronavirus pandemic.
The relationship of the former president and also former Minister of Transport and Communications with the treatment against COVID-19, as well as with the disease itself, began in 2020, when the vaccine was still being developed from various laboratories worldwide.
Martín Vizcarra and his irregular vaccination
In September 2020, and as part of an agreement between the Government and the Chinese laboratory Synopharm To carry out phase III trials in Peru, an experimentation process was started with some twelve thousand volunteers, who would receive doses of the vaccine and placebo under the program known as “double blind”. The participants and the medical staff who would administer the doses would not know whether they were administering a placebo or a real vaccine.
However, the Chinese government, without being publicly reported, sent an additional batch of vaccines outside the batch destined for phase III. Some 3,200 doses arrived in the country and a part was destined for personnel of the Chinese embassy, while another group was delivered to the group of researchers chaired by Germán Málaga to be administered to the personnel involved in the experimentation.
These vaccines ended up being applied to people outside work in phase III under the category of “guests”. Among them was the former president Martin Vizcarra, his wife Maribel Díaz and his brother César.
The former president, still in office and before being vacated from office in November 2020 by the full Congress, received his first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine on October 2, 2020 and the second dose on the 29th of the same month.
Documents of the final report of the Ministry of Health on ‘vacunagate’.
Vizcarra acknowledges his vaccination
On February 11, 2021, at a press conference when he was a candidate for Congress for the Somos Perú party, Martin Vizcarra confirmed that he had received two doses of the vaccine, but said he did so as part of the 12,000 volunteers in phase III of the laboratory Synopharm.
:quality(75)/cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/XnpyD2jW/poster.jpg "Martín Vizcarra: these are the times that the former president was infected and became ill with COVID-19")
His version was quickly discredited by the explanations provided by others involved, including the former Minister of Health Pilar Mazzetti, who also benefited from the irregular doses of the vaccine, and Germán Málaga. They assured that all the doses applied were exclusively to protect the beneficiaries against COVID-19. There was no chance of them receiving placebo and they were not considered part of phase III.
The revelation of what became known as the ‘vacunagate’ ended in a constitutional accusation against the former president and his disqualification for ten years by decision of Congress. This prevented him from being given credentials as a congressman after the general elections of April 11, 2021.
The first COVID-19 infection
On April 25, 2021, Martin Vizcarra He reported on his social networks that both he and his wife, both vaccinated by the extra doses sent by the Sinopharm laboratory, had tested positive for COVID-19 and were symptomatic.
In a live broadcast four days later on his Facebook account, the former president explained that on the 24th of that month they had undergone a test due to the symptoms they were presenting.
“Since last Thursday we have felt the symptoms with discomfort, mainly in the throat. On Friday they continued, that’s why I took a molecular test on Saturday the 24th and the test came out positive […] We have had intense days of fever. The most difficult days have been Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Happily after a week the symptoms seem to be gradually subsiding.”, commented.
The third dose of Martín Vizcarra
On June 27, when the vaccination campaign with doses from the Pfizer laboratory at the national level was already advanced, Martín Vizcarra went to get vaccinated when the age range for people over 50 was extended.
“Today, according to the schedule, I received the COVID-19 vaccine. Thanks to the Municipality of San Isidro and Essalud for carrying out an orderly and efficient vaccination”, he wrote on Twitter.
This would become the third dose that the former president received. It had been eight months since her second dose of Sinopharm and her first dose of Pfizer.
According to the schedule, three weeks later he was due to receive the second dose of Pfizer, but this did not materialize.
Prevent your second regular dose
The day after the first “official” inoculation of Martin Vizcarra, the then Minister of Health, Óscar Ugarte, assured that a second dose would not be applied to all those who benefited from the irregular doses of Sinopharm.
“What we did last night (June 27) as soon as we found out, we informed Reniec that we have given the order to exclude these 487 people from the register. Therefore, the former deputy minister (Luis Suárez) does not bother to go on the 30th, because he will not be in the registry and will not be vaccinated, and that Mr. Vizcarra does not try to receive the second dose of the vaccine, as he has done with the first dose”, affirmed Ugarte before the press.
“That is to say, we are taking a drastic measure by virtue of this improper use, already for the second time. As the Ministry of Health, we are very outraged by this situation and we reject this behavior”added the minister.
In a broadcast on Facebook on July 1, Martín Vizcarra described the Executive’s decision as “irrational.”
“(Minister of Health) do not allow yourself to be put against the wall by any politician or media outlet that is adverse to me. Make absolutely irrational decisions. “We are not going to apply the second dose and we will remove all those who have received the clinical trial from the registry.” Well, take me out, but how many people from that registry could have some other comorbidity and by not vaccinating them could even lose their lives? Who assumes that responsibility, you minister?”he warned.
The reinfection of Martín Vizcarra
On January 12, 2022, seven months after receiving the first dose from Pfizer, Martin Vizcarra revealed on social networks that he had been infected with COVID-19 again, along with his minor son. His wife and other daughters did not contract the virus.
“This is the second time I am with COVID-19. The first time was on April 24, 2021, right in the second wave. I was with the symptoms known to all. Now I’m exactly the same: headache, sore throat, general malaise, sweating and we’re receiving the same treatment. I have exactly the same symptoms that I had last year. It was almost a week and we will have to face them accordingly”, he stated.
The former president reiterated his criticism of the decision not to allow him to receive the second dose that corresponded to him as part of the regular vaccination process. “The Peruvian State through the Ministry of Health has not allowed me to receive the second dose and, as you know, a vaccine consists of two doses,” he asserted.
The next day, on January 13, he reported that he had been admitted to the Villa Panamericana to overcome the symptoms of the coronavirus. “With the good attention of all the staff, I am sure that I will soon overcome COVID”, he wrote on Twitter.
Controversy over the Pan American Village
The news of Martín Vizcarra’s entry into the Villa Panamericana was criticized by Congress in the plenary session that same Thursday the 13th, through the participation of Fujimori congressman Ernesto Bustamante.
“I wanted to refer to the admission of former President Martín Vizcarra to the Villa Panamericana. It’s a barbarity. I call on Essalud to expel Vizcarra from the Villa. He is a person who is responsible for the death of more than 70,000 people, 70,000 Peruvians, who have died unnecessarily due to his mishandling of the pandemic, for using rapid tests that prove nothing, and for buying vaccines in the wrong way. ”, he asserted in the hemicycle.
:quality(75)/cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/rVlNnqtN/poster.jpg "Martín Vizcarra: these are the times that the former president was infected and became ill with COVID-19")
Bustamante’s participation was received by applause from congressmen from different benches: both Fuerza Popular and some members of Peru Libre, and even the Board of Directors headed by the president of the Legislative, María del Carmen Alva, applauded when the expulsion of the former president of the Pan American Village.
In response, several former ministers of the government of Martín Vizcarra spoke out through a statement rejecting the idea of politicizing access to health by the president.
“We urge institutions to fulfill their role of promoting and guaranteeing the fundamental rights of all Peruvians without exception and political representatives to avoid any discriminatory act or behavior that calls into question equality before the law enshrined in the Constitution”, they added.
The former Minister of Health, Óscar Ugarte, also spoke in this line, who also denied that any right of the former president had been affected by preventing him from receiving the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
“When Vizcarra took advantage of a registration error in May and was vaccinated with Pfizer, it was a third dose that was not authorized but valid as protection. After 8 months he has fallen with COVID, it is not uncommon because his defenses may have lowered “, he wrote on social networks.
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