The Vaccine Scandal in Corrientes: After …

In Corrientes, after it was discovered that the Minister of Health, Ricardo Cardozo, was transporting vaccines against covid-19 in his private car when he suffered a heart attack and crashed, national and provincial legislators denounced that the 900 doses of Sputnik V had been transported ” without any type of documentation, nor sanitary protocols, nor of security “and they demanded the resignation of Cardozo. The provincial government, however, confirmed the official in his position, who is currently hospitalized, and assured that “a minister will not be fired because he had a heart attack.”

“We express our alarm and concern about the episode starring the Minister of Public Health of the Province, Ricardo Cardozo, who after colliding with the private vehicle in which he was traveling, it was discovered that he was transporting a batch of 900 anti-covid-19 vaccines. With surprise We observed that the medicine did not have any type of registry, so we required technical and official reports to the Provincial Executive Power, on the distribution of all the vaccines against covid-19 sent by the national government, “said the Frente de Todos Corrientes, to through a statement signed by all the senators and national and provincial deputies of Corrientes. In the document, in addition to demanding the resignation of the minister, the legislators asked Governor Gustavo Valdés for an official report on “the fate of the batch of vaccines found in the private vehicle in which Minister Cardozo was traveling.”

“The minister transported 900 vaccines in his private car without any type of protocol or logistics. On December 28, an agreement was signed between the government of the Province and the Droguería del Sud SA in which it was defined that a certain amount of money for the drugstore to do the collection, distribution and logistics of the vaccines, why was a company hired if later anyone was going to be able to move them in their car as if nothing had happened? “, questioned the national deputy of the Frente de Todos in Corrientes José Aragon, in dialogue with PageI12. “What the minister did incurs in breach of the duties of a public official because that vaccine has to maintain a cold chain of less than 18 degrees that, logically, is very difficult to maintain in a truck, and more if we take into account the temperature of Corrientes and the fact that the journey from the capital to Goya is more than 200 kilometers, “added Aragón, thus justifying the request to resign against Ricardo Cardozo.

“A minister is not going to be thrown out because he had a heart attack,” replied the governor of Corrientes, Gustavo Valdés. Asked about the future of Cardozo during a press conference, the president argued that the 900 doses that had traveled in the official’s car to reach the town of Goya had done so “in perfect condition” and ratified it in his post. “Everything was in order. The minister had to travel to Goya because there was a meeting of the Crisis Committee because the town had gone from phase 5 to phase 3. And, as it was necessary to carry the vaccines that the national government had left, they decided to take them personally in the official cars. The boxes traveled sealed, respecting the protocols, and maintained their cold chain, otherwise they would not have been able to apply today, “sources from the Corrientes government explained to this newspaper.

Indeed, the 900 doses of Sputnik V that were transferred began to be inoculated in the last hours at the Goya Zonal Hospital. According to the official explanation, a refrigerated vehicle was not necessary to carry out the transfer, since the doses had been sealed with dry ice. “There is nothing to investigate because there was no crime. Not a single vaccine was lost,” they highlighted from the surroundings of Valdés.

“They have not presented us with any documentation. We made a request for information from the Frente de Todos bloc in the Legislature and we have not had any official response. On the other hand, the vaccinator manual that was issued by the Ministry of Health of the Nation to all the ministries maintains that the vaccines cannot be transferred in any mobile, but that they have to be properly conditioned. We have no doubt: these vaccines were transferred improperly, “said Aragón, and was outraged for the recriminations of Gustavo Valdés against the opposition due to Cardozo’s state of health after the accident. “The governor says that we are miserable because the minister had a heart attack. We are not discussing the minister’s condition, what we maintain is that there was a previous action in which the minister irresponsibly transferred 900 vaccines in his car,” he denounced. “It is unfortunate that the minister had an accident, but we insist that the vaccines should be moved safely according to a protocol. We are very concerned because the government has been handling to taste the logistics of vaccination, “added national senator Ana Almirón.

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