Paraguay’s former foreign minister says countries were “deceived” by Covax

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On May 3, the former Paraguayan Foreign Minister Euclides Acevedo said that his country, along with others, was “deceived” by the Covax mechanism for the distribution of vaccines against covid-19.

In declarations from the Government Palace, Acevedo, who resigned on Friday to enter the electoral race, said he hoped that Paraguay could recover “a high percentage” of the resources it allocated to purchase the vaccines against the virus.

“Paraguay was not the only victim,” said the former official about the situation with the mechanism promoted by the World Health Organization and the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI).

“Other countries were deceived just like us. It was not a problem between Paraguay and Covax; it was between Covax and many of the countries that also trusted the system,” he added.

The former head of Paraguayan diplomacy regretted that they had committed “the naivety” of having directed their first economic resources to this system and indicated that this “willingness and trust” was not repaid with what the country needed.

According to the former minister, the “great failure of the Covax system” took his country “with its underpants down,” but he highlighted the support of international cooperation to overcome the situation.

Acevedo explained that Paraguay has been working “for quite some time now” on the renegotiation of the agreements signed and hoped that it could obtain “good results”.

The lack of vaccines, medicines, and supplies amid the covid-19 health alert unleashed in March 2021 a series of protests by citizens demanding the resignation of the Paraguayan president, Mario Abdo Benítez, for his handling of the pandemic.

The crisis forced the president to announce changes in his cabinet after the resignation of the then Minister of Health, Julio Mazzoleni.

Regarding the situation with Covax, the Minister of Health, Julio Borba, said last April that Paraguay is seeking to reach an “amicable” agreement to terminate the deal since it does not need a little more than three million vaccines remaining from the contracted lot.

The agreement foresaw the delivery of some four million biologicals, of which “a little more than one million” arrived, said the minister at the time.

With information from EFE