“Vaccinegate” in Peru: 487 people used their position to secretly receive anti-Covid-19 dose

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Peru’s president Francisco Sagasti on Monday night, February 15th, confirmed that 487 people had been “unofficially” vaccinated, among them high-ranking officials and civil servants, who “used their position to be immunized with Sinopharm’s vaccines”.

Sagasti addressed the nation alongside the president of the Council of Ministers, Violeta Bermudez, and reiterated his “indignation and disappointment upon having learned that 487 people, among them many public officials, had used their position to be immunized with the Sinopharm vaccines that came as a complement to those used in the clinical trials in our country,” reported Agencia Andina.

Sagasti pointed out that all the people involved in this illegal conduct will be removed from their positions because “they have no place in this government” and assured that the Executive branch will proceed with negotiations to secure the vaccines that will enable to immunize the whole population.

Among the people vaccinated are ex-Minister of Health Pilar Mazzetti, who a few days ago denied having been immunized, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Elizabeth Astete, who resigned yesterday after admitting that she had indeed been vaccinated.

According to information obtained by El Comercio newspaper, Mazzetti was vaccinated in mid-January this year and was administered the second dose on February 6th at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia’s (UPCH) facilities, according to sources from Sinopharm’s trial program. The Peruvian media labeled the scandal as “Vacunagate” (Vaccinegate).

Mazzetti was given the immunizer by Sinopharm before the arrival of the first batch of coronavirus vaccines, which landed on February 7th in the Andean country.

Ex-president Martín Vizcarra was also involved, vaccinated in October, weeks before he was removed by Congress in a lightning impeachment trial, while Mazzetti and Astete were immunized in January.

The ex-president claimed that he was a “volunteer” in the Chinese vaccine trial, before the immunizer was given the go-ahead on December 31st, but the Cayetano Heredia University has denied his allegations.

Vizcarra, who left power with a high approval rating, on Monday “apologized” to his countrymen “for not having reported this fact at the time”, but insisted that he was a volunteer in the trial, as were his wife and a brother.

“I submit myself to the investigations (of the prosecutor’s office) in the interest of clarifying this situation,” he added, denying that he had “lied” or committed a crime.

In this respect, Sagasti expressed his “deep feeling of pain, because these people, who were part of our Transition and Emergency Government, failed in their duty as public servants and in their loyalty to the President of the Council of Ministers and to myself.”

After admitting on Sunday that the ex-deputy Minister of Public Health Luis Suarez and Astete were administered the vaccine, Health Minister Oscar Ugarte announced on Monday that the government has opened an investigation into the alleged “unofficial” vaccination of high-ranking officials, who would have reached agreements with pharmaceutical companies to be immunized in secrecy.

According to Ugarte’s statement to RPP radio station hours earlier, “the first report in the Ministry of Health could be of between 15 and 20 people vaccinated.”

The president confirmed that the list of people who benefited from the vaccine will be forwarded to the Comptroller General’s Office, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office and the investigative commission set up by Ugarte to take the appropriate measures.

The political storm unleashed on Thursday turned into a hurricane on Sunday, when Foreign Minister Astete acknowledged that she had been vaccinated and resigned.

“The minister’s resignation (…) is a very important political fact. Vizcarra and Sagasti’s opponents somehow win” ahead of the April 11th elections, analyst Luis Benavente told AFP.

Astete, replaced on Monday by ex-Foreign Minister Allan Wagner, resigned two days after Mazzetti, who had been head of Health since Vizcarra’s days. Eight Foreign Ministry officials are among those vaccinated, Wagner said.

Astete’s disclosure placed Sagasti’s government at the heart of controversy. On Sunday it became known that Sinopharm delivered to Peru 3,200 extra doses, in addition to those intended for the 12,000 volunteers.

On Monday, the Chinese embassy declared that it “has no information on the identity of those vaccinated”, since the trial was conducted by Peruvian universities, and rejected the use of “terms such as courtesy vaccines, donations or perks” used by the Peruvian media.

While in other countries presidents and officials were vaccinated in public to set an example, in Peru critics point to the fact that some officials were vaccinated in advance and failed to report it. “It is more of an ethical issue. You can’t vaccinate yourself and your family (…) when there are people on the front-line, doctors, who have died,” civil servant Anaís Rojas told AFP.

Sagasti, 76, was vaccinated in public on the first day of immunization of healthcare workers last Tuesday, an occasion in which he encouraged Peruvians to do so.

The Peruvian president and the heads of the other public powers (legislative, judicial, public prosecutor’s office and comptroller’s office, among others) pledged “to conduct the relevant investigations”, in a joint statement on Monday.

The Andean country currently has one million doses of the Chinese vaccine, of which some 77,000 have been administered to healthcare professionals. There is still no date to begin vaccinating the rest of the population.

Despite criticism of the vaccinated officials, there is no consensus among jurists as to whether or not they have committed a crime or if it is just ethical misconduct. However, the issue threatens to hinder “support for Vizcarra (who is seeking a seat in Congress) and presidential candidate Julio Guzman, of Sagasti’s centrist party”, according to Benavente.

With 33 million inhabitants, Peru now totals 43,703 deaths from covid-19, with 1.23 million confirmed cases.