Uruguay’s government said it will comply with judicial information request on Covid vaccines

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Today the Uruguayan government said it will give the judiciary “all the information it has to give” regarding the coronavirus vaccines and the purchase and sale contracts after attorney Maximiliano Dentone’s request for legal protection was granted by Judge Alejandro Recarey, the secretary of the presidency, Álvaro Delgado, said at a press conference reported on Tuesday.

Delgado noted that the administration will present itself with the “three principles” that he believes the government acted on during the pandemic: “transparency, responsibility and scientific support,” the secretary said.

“If there is something we have done in these two very difficult years that all Uruguayans have suffered, it is transparency with the people, constant information about the good, the bad, the risks. We offered protection to the people and showed our face,” he said.

Both the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) and the U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer were ordered by Administrative Court Judge Alejandro Recarey to provide information about the vaccines. He did so following a request by lawyer Maximiliano Dentone, who asked for the “suspension of vaccination against Covid-19 in children.”

The judge “specifically” ordered Pfizer to disclose whether the company “has admitted in an internal or external setting to reviewing the adverse effects of vaccines,” particularly “with respect to the child population.”

The hearing to transmit the request was scheduled for Wednesday, July 6, at 9 a.m. Health Minister Daniel Salinas told El Observador that the MSP is collecting the information requested by the court.

“In the history of Uruguay, there has never been a government decision that has been so much discussed and scientifically supported as the vaccination against the coronavirus,” Delgado said, adding that it is also a “global policy with scientific support and global certifications.”

In addition, the minister explained that vaccination against coronavirus in the country is “not mandatory, but voluntary.”