Minister of Health Argentina, Minus Gonzalez Garcia resigns President’s request, Alberto Fernandez, after the revelation that members around him would have received vaccines against Kovid-19 in his office, without having to wait for a turn like other Argentines.
Gonzales Garcia wrote in a letter to the President on Friday (19), “In response to your request, I present my resignation to you as Minister of Health.”
He was replaced by the current Secretary for Health, a 48-year-old specialist in internal medicine, Carla Vizzotti, who will be sworn in on Saturday afternoon (21), the presidential announcement.
Vizzotti stood out for Argentina to receive the Russian vaccine against Kovid-19 Sputnik V, the first country in the US that approves and uses it.
González García, 75, who was already in charge of the portfolio during the government of Nestor Kirner (2003–2007), took office in December 2019 and managed the entire coronavirus epidemic.
His administration, marked by ups and downs, was certainly tainted by the “privileged” vaccination at the health headquarters, the same day that the city of Buenos Aires requested for online appointments to vaccinate people over the age of 80 Was. From next Monday, a system that collapsed almost immediately due to heavy demand.
Only health professionals have been vaccinated in Argentina until now. Vaccination for more than 70 people began in Buenos Aires province only on Wednesday.
Journalist Horacio Verbitzky said on the radio on Friday that because of his long friendship with the minister, the scandal came to light after he was able to get vaccinated in his office.
Verbitzky said, “I decided to get vaccinated. I went to find out where to do it. I called my old friend Ginés Gonzalez Garcia, whom I knew long before I became a minister.”
The scandal caused a wave of reactions on social networks with the hashtag #vacunasvip (vip vaccines).
In addition to Verbitsky, others close to the government were vaccinated at the Ministry of Health, according to local media.
González García stated in his resignation letter that “vaccinators belong to the groups included within the current campaign’s target population”, for those over 70 years of age.
In addition to acting as a journalist, 71-year-old Verbitzky also operated the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) dedicated to human rights.
Destep Radio owner Roberto Navarro, the station at which Verbitsky revealed, announced that he had canceled his collaborations. “It is an immorality to have VIP vaccines with 50,000 dead. It is unethical who authorized it and who got vaccinated, ”said Navarro on Twitter.
SAIL officials also condemned this fact. “We received news that the president of our organization was vaccinated outside the established system, through a series of favors and in a personal capacity (…) that the CBS team denied this or any other action or privilege “, He tweeted.
Argentina, with 44 million inhabitants, accumulates two million sevid-19 infections and causes more than 51 thousand deaths.
Vaccination began in the country in late December with Sputnik V from the Russian laboratory Gamalaya, but due to lack of dose the process is proceeding much more slowly than it initially was.
President Fernandez and Vice President Christina Kirchner, both in their 60s, were vaccinated on camera to express confidence in the vaccine.
To date, Argentina has received 1.22 million doses of Sputnik V and 580,000 doses of Covishield, the vaccine from the Serum Institute of India, on Wednesday.
Argentina’s vaccination plans include vaccines from the British coalition Oxford / AstraZeneca and other contracts, including a total of 62 million doses by the end of the year, through the international cooperation mechanism Kovacs.
