LIMA, Peru – The hopes sparked by the arrival of the first vaccines in South America hardens to anger as vaccination campaigns have turned into scandal, cronyism and corruption, turning national governments upside down and trusting the political establishment is undermined.
Four ministers in Peru, Argentina and Ecuador have resigned this month or are being investigated on suspicion of receiving or granting preferential access to scarce coronavirus admissions. Prosecutors in those countries, and in Brazil, are investigating thousands more allegations of inoculation irregularities, involving most local politicians and their families standing in line.
As allegations of misconduct are trapping more dignitaries, tension is mounting in a region where the population’s outrage with graft and inequality has sparked raucous protests against the political status quo in recent years. The frustration could again find an outlet on the streets – or in the polls, which could shape voter decisions in upcoming races, such as the Peru elections in April.
“They all knew that patients were dying,” said Robert Campos, 67, a physician in Peru’s capital, Lima, of the country’s politicians. “And they vaccinated all their little friends.”
The anger over powerful line cutters has been heightened by the scarcity of vaccines. South America, like other developing regions, is struggling to get adequate doses as rich countries buy up most of the available supply.
Dr. Campos said he didn’t make it to the vaccination list when limited doses came in for hospital staff last week.
South America was destroyed by the virus, accounting for nearly a fifth of all pandemic deaths worldwide – 450,000 according to official figures – despite about 5 percent of the world’s population. Mortality figures suggest that the real pandemic toll in the region is at least double the official figures.
The virus has also collapsed national health systems, pushed millions into poverty and plunged the region into the worst economic crisis in modern history.
Despite its heavy toll, the pandemic reinforced public support for most of the region’s governments, as several provided financial support to their population and called for unity.
The vaccination scandals could end this goodwill and usher in a new wave of instability, analysts warn.
“People find it much more difficult to tolerate corruption when health is at stake,” said Mariel Fornoni, a pollster in Buenos Aires.
The scandals reflect similar cases in Lebanon, Spain and the Philippines – and the United States, where there have also been instances of elite access to early shots and unequal distribution across racial and ethnic groups.
In Latin America, the brutal nature of some cases has sparked outrage.
In Peru, a deputy health minister was vaccinated with extra doses from a clinical trial along with his wife, sister, two children, a nephew and a niece. Ecuador’s health minister sent doses of the country’s first batch of vaccine, which the government said was reserved for the public sector, to a luxury private nursing home where his mother lives.
A prominent Argentinean journalist revealed in a radio interview last week that he got a shot at the Ministry of Health after calling his friend, who was then Minister of Health, and revealed what locals call a “VIP Immunization Clinic” for allies. from the government. In Brazil, prosecutors have requested the arrest of the mayor of Manaus, a northern city devastated by two waves of coronavirus, on suspicion of granting preferential vaccination access to allies.
And in Suriname, the 38-year-old Minister of Health assigned himself the first vaccination shot to ‘set an example’.
As the revelations poured in, citizens in South America took to social media to expose the abuses and identify the suspected line-cutters. Doctors and nurses in Peru protested outside hospitals last week to demand vaccines as the country’s vaccination scandal intensified.
Health ministers have resigned in Peru and Argentina, where the former official was accused of abuse of power; The Ecuadorian Minister of Health is facing impeachment and a criminal investigation.
The vaccination scandals have hit especially hard in Peru, where the pandemic killed more than 45,000 people according to official figures, although excess mortality data suggests the real toll could be more than double.
Earlier this month, the physician conducting Peru’s first vaccine study acknowledged having inoculated nearly 250 politicians, notables and their relatives, as well as college administrators, interns, and others with undeclared extra doses. Some, according to the director of the trial, Dr. Germán Málaga, received three doses in an attempt to maximize their immunity.
The scandal shook a country already reeling from a series of corruption investigations that have broken trust in democratic institutions and ensnared all six of the country’s most recent former presidents.
Only one of the former presidents, Martín Vizcarra, left the office with high approval rates, thanks to his tough stance on corruption. Now, Mr. Vizcarra has become entangled in the vaccination scandal after it was revealed that he was secretly injected during his tenure before Peru even approved or bought vaccines. He then tried to hide it.
“We thought he was a good person,” said Ana Merino, a Lima newspaper salesman whose husband died of Covid last year. “Who can we turn to? Who’s left? “
The list of those who unfairly benefited from the vaccination trial in Peru includes the health minister, vaccine regulators, the trial’s academic hosts, and even the Vatican’s envoy in the country. The envoy, Nicola Girasoli, told local media he got the vaccine because he was an “ethics advisor” to the university that led the trial.
After his resignation, Peruvian Health Minister Pilar Mazzetti said getting the shot was “the biggest mistake of my life”. Another politician who benefited from the lawsuit, the country’s secretary of state, Elizabeth Astete, also resigned, claiming she “didn’t have the luxury” of getting sick on the job.
The vaccination scandal could shake up Peru’s general elections in April, in favor of candidates pledging a radical break from the current political system, said Alfredo Torres, the head of the Ipsos polling station in Lima.
Among them are Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of a imprisoned former president, who has said she will turn Peru into a ‘demodura’, a mix of Spanish words for democracy and dictatorship, and Rafael López Aliaga, who has proposed giving death sentences. to corruption. politicians.
Since most countries in the region have so far only received a fraction of the vaccines they need, several groups have competed for priority.
In Peru and Venezuela, governments have said security forces would take precedence over health workers, sparking protests from the medical community.
In Brazil, which has only vaccinated 3 percent of the population, a third of the country’s 210 million residents are now on the priority list, far more than the number of doses available. The group includes veterinarians who claimed to work in healthcare; truck drivers, who threatened to go on strike if they did not receive the vaccine; and psychologists, firefighters and construction workers.
The confusion was compounded by the Brazilian government’s decision to partially delegate the vaccination order to local officials, leading to a kaleidoscope of conflicting rules. Some prosecutors investigating vaccine transplantation said the bureaucratic chaos has been deliberately amplified to hide cronyism and corruption.
“Doctors call me all the time saying they are afraid of dying,” because they can’t get vaccines, said Edmar Fernandes, president of the medical union in the Brazilian state of Ceará. “This kind of corruption is deadly.”
Mitra Taj reported from Lima; Anatoly Kurmanaev from Caracas, Venezuela; Manuela Andreoni from Rio de Janeiro and Daniel Politi from Buenos Aires.
Additional reporting contributed by Isayen Herrera from Caracas, Venezuela; Ank Kuipers from Paramaribo, Suriname; José María León Cabrera from Quito, Ecuador, and Jenny Carolina González from Bogotá, Colombia.