Stock Express assaulted, criminals collect for the end of the year

• Media Nation Research Unit

The treatment that the government of Mario Abdo Benítez gave to the covid-19 pandemic is one of the main axes of questioning of his administration, and within this aspect, one of the central issues was undoubtedly the arrival of the vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. The president and Julio Mazzoleni, former head of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare (MSPyBS), bet almost all the chips on the mechanism Covaxa failure from start to finish where they are frozen $5,670,990 of emergency funds.

Until now, the Paraguayan State has not been able to put an end to the situation, especially after the tireless promises made by the national authorities, which all they did was play with the illusion of a population that was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the biologicals. in order to alleviate the scenario of daily deaths as a result of the coronavirus.

It all started in October 2020 when the then Minister of Health, Julio Mazzoleni, announced that the Government had decided to bet on the Covax mechanism, co-directed by the Gavi Alliancethe Coalition for Innovations in Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) and the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO).

Paraguay disbursed $6,847,680 as initial payment for the total of 4,279,800 committed vaccines. The story is already known, by April 2021 the PAHO/WHO representative Luis Escoto he left the country, in the midst of a situation of health crisis, social tension and political abandonment; the situation worsened.

Vaccines came dropper as of June 2021 Covax only delivered 304,800 doses; Added to other acquisitions and donations, it was barely enough to cover workers in white and the elderly. Finally, in July 2021, thanks to cooperation from the White House, the first large batch of biologicals arrived in Paraguay, the first one million doses of Pfizer.

But the Covax case continued the same, only promises and more promises. On September 27, 2021, the Minister of Health, Julio Borbahad announced that there was a “firm commitment” to receive 3 million in November, but nothing happened.

When consulting the Attorney General’s Office about legal actions taken to recover State assets, they explained that everything is still in the field of talks What is the Ministry of Health doing?

According to the details provided by Dr. Gustavo Irala, legal advisor to the Ministry of Health, As of November 2021, it delivered a total of 1,093,200 doses, and there was a balance to be received of 3,186,600. He also explained that the funds available to Paraguay held by Covax are from $5,670,990and that the termination of the agreement and the return of said funds was proposed.

“There is still no response on the reimbursement date, the agreement is still in force and Paraguay’s approach remains the same; that is, the termination by mutual agreement and the return of the remaining funds of the initial payment”, explained Irala.

A detail to note is also that after more than 2 years, supposedly Covax wants to fulfill its commitments and deliver the missing dosesbut the Government’s position is that our country is not in a position to receive the remaining vaccines because it already signed other contracts at the time due to the need to have vaccines against covid-19.