MEXICO CITY.
The Ministry of Health (Ssa) ordered to challenge the amparos to vaccinate minors between 12 and 14 years of age on the grounds that it is a clinical trial and they should freely decide if they want to be vaccinated or not, when in fact since June 24 In 2021, the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks, Cofepris, authorized the application of the Pfizer vaccine in young people between 12 and 17 years of age, the only one guaranteed so far for this age group.
While the Ssa challenged the injunctions to vaccinate adolescents between 14 and 12 years old filed by the lawyer Noé Franco, explaining that since it is “a clinical trial (the application of Pfizer)”, it ignores “the human right that the minor also has complaining, to be heard and even freely decide if he wants to be vaccinated, which was not taken into account, since at the date of the application for protection and its annexes it is not noticed that the minor stated that he wants to be vaccinated ”; Cofepris published in communiqué 23/2021 that “the biological complies with the quality, safety and efficacy requirements necessary for its application to people 12 years of age and older.”
It was on June 22 when the pharmaceutical company Pfizer SA de CV, presented to Cofepris, through the Sanitary Authorization Commission, the information, which was ruled by experts using technical and scientific criteria, including the non-binding opinion of the Committee. of Molecules New (CMN), and unanimously its members issued a favorable opinion.
And in fact, since Tuesday, November 30, the vaccination against covid-19 for adolescents between 15 and 17 years old without comorbidities of all the municipalities of Mexico City began.
Young people who registered on the mivacuna.salud.gob.mx page and requested a personalized appointment are those who access the vaccine.
Registration remains open. An estimated 390,000 young people between the ages of 15 and 17 can receive the Pfizer vaccine in the capital.
“Basically, there is no reason why the SSA intends to delay the exercise of the right to health of young people between 12 and 14 years old, with the pretext that it is not the minors themselves who express in court their desire to be vaccinated, for Two fundamental reasons: the application of the biological Pfizer for that specific age group is no longer in the clinical experimental stage, since since June 24 it has been fully authorized by Cofepris; and second, because the Ssa is not the authority empowered to restrict the rights of legitimate representation to parents and / or mothers who exercise their own rights of parental authority and guardianship that they have, according to the law of the matter, over their youngest children.
Therefore, under this argument, the SSA not only unduly delays access to health care for minors, but also seeks to arbitrarily disregard the right to legitimate representation of the aforementioned young people through those who are in charge of the homeland. power of the same ”, explained Carla Erika Ureña, constitutional lawyer, graduated from the University of the Americas-Puebla (UDLAP).
Each of the amparos that the lawyer Noé Franco has entered for adolescents between 14 and 12 years old, from that moment, when the registry for those between 15 and 17 years old was opened, on November 19, they were challenged by the Ministry of Health .
“The legal recourse they bring is that of a COMPLAINT. In 60 percent of the resolutions we have managed to reverse it, but in the other 40 percent, no, because the Collegiate Courts are giving them the reason, “said Noé Franco, a victim lawyer, in an interview with Excelsior.
Mexico is currently experiencing an unprecedented health crisis.
Until October 24, 2021, the covid-19 virus had caused the death of 286,259 Mexican men and women, according to data from the Ministry of Health.
Of these, between April 2020 and August 2021, 758 were minors, in addition to 160,000 infections in this population, according to the National System for the Protection of Girls, Boys and Adolescents.
This Friday, December 4, the General Directorate of Epidemiology, through the Institute for Epidemiological Diagnosis and Reference (InDRE), confirmed the first positive case of the omicron variant in Mexico.
In addition, since last November 26, 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO), following the advice of the Technical Consultative Group on the Evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus, classified the variant B.1.1.529 (omicron) as worrisome.
“The reason the federal government has delayed and is making vaccinating those under 18 so difficult is ridiculous: they just don’t have enough doses.
To vaccinate children from 5 to 17 years old, approximately 36 or 38 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine are required specifically, taking into account that schoolchildren from 5 to 11 use only a third of doses.
According to a slide shown by the Secretary of Defense a few weeks ago, in Mexico we only have 18 million, that is, we are missing another 18 million doses against COVID, at least.
These vaccines must be negotiated, contracted, paid for and delivered.
When, how and with what money this will be done, is something that they do not tell us.
Mexico continues to lag behind when it comes to vaccination. With the arrival of the omicron variant, all middle-income countries upwards (and some in Latin America) are accelerating their vaccination of minors. Mexico waited for the water to reach its neck to begin a process that has become slow and complicated, “concluded Xavier Tello, surgeon and public health policy analyst.
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