We have paid in advance for a batch of vaccines from the Covax mechanism, and we are requesting that they send us for the children.”
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President of Mexico.
Dozens of children under 11 years of age have been vaccinated since 2021 against Covid-19 in our country, although only those who were able to promote an injunction and were granted it by federal judges.
The Federal Judiciary Council (CJF) informed El Economista that from December 12, 2020 to March 31 of this year, 189 amparos were processed before federal judges with effect for one or more minors, in order to receive the vaccine. from Pfizer, the only one endorsed in Mexico for its application in minors. Some of those resources were rejected by the judges; in other cases, magistrates privileged the health of minors and granted protection.
Lawyer Alfonso José Jiménez filed dozens of these resources free of charge, which helped 30 minors to be immunized.
“I did it free of charge because I don’t think that justice should exist only for those who can pay lawyers. And because I like to win protections; There is no lawyer who does not like to beat the government. There were about 30 children from all over the Republic. Many of us are still waiting for the second dose to be given.
“(The Ministry of) Health did everything possible not to vaccinate the minors, even when the judicial determinations were already firm. But a constitutional judge always has much more power than the responsible authorities”, said the litigant.
Because the number of protections granted does not determine the number of people benefited, this newspaper asked the federal Ministry of Health how many minors have been vaccinated through protection, but at press time it did not respond.
Cases presented
According to the CJF, the 189 amparos were promoted in all the Administrative Courts.
For example, on November 16, 2021, the Third Collegiate Court in Administrative Matters of the First Circuit declared it inadmissible to grant the outright suspension against the omission of the authorities to apply the vaccine against the Covid-19 virus.
In contrast, on November 25 of last year, the Seventh Collegiate Court in Administrative Matters of the First Circuit granted the ex officio and outright suspension for a minor to be included in the National Vaccination Policy against SARS-CoV-2 virus, and If this is the case, the respective vaccine is applied.
The protections have not only been promoted in the Judicial Power of the Federation by parents of minors, there are also cases of people who have requested reinforcement of the vaccine, or even medical supplies in hospitals.
One of the latest resolutions was last March 31, when the First District Court in the State of Durango granted an indirect protection for the application of the booster vaccine to a person.
It should be noted that in Mexico vaccination of people 60 years of age and older began in April 2021, and consecutively for younger people up to 18 years of age. People between 15 and 17 years old were not considered until January. Since then the minors have remained. The Secretary of Health, Jorge Alcocer, and the Undersecretary, Hugo López-Gatell, argued that minors have a lower degree of aggravation to their health if they acquire Covid-19.
Nonconformity, since 2020
It was due to this situation that fathers and mothers began to file protection appeals since 2020 so that their minor children were considered in the application of the vaccine.
In March of this year, without making it public, the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris) approved the emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine against Covid-19 in children between 5 and 11 years of age.
The federal government has already requested, through the Global Access Fund for Covid-19 Vaccines (Covax), the acquisition of biologicals from Pfizer that will be applied to this sector of the population.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said: “We have paid in advance for a batch of vaccines from the Covax mechanism, and we are requesting that they send us for the children. Because the ones we have cannot be used, if they are not from some authorized brands. We want what they owe us, what we pay them in advance, to deliver to us with vaccines for the children. And with the right vaccines.”
The head of Government of CDMX, Claudia Sheinbaum, indicated that the start of vaccination for this age group will be defined by the president and the Undersecretary of Health, Hugo López-Gatell, although they hope to start this month.
