If everything goes normally, On Tuesday, the first contract will be signed with a North American laboratory for the supply of vaccines: it will be with Johnson & Johnson or Moderna, the two that have already given the ok. The deal with Pfizer is also winding down, but it will not reach Tuesday. “The needs of the laboratories were preserved and at the same time we supported the interests of the State,” said Health Minister Carla Vizzotti on Saturday about the DNU and the agreements. In parallel, Also on Tuesday, a donation agreement will be signed from the United States government to the Argentine government of 2,500,000 doses of vaccines produced by the three North American laboratories.. This agreement could not be signed without the agreement with the laboratories because guarantees and insurance were required. The donation agreement is supposed to be signed by a State Department official and the Argentine ambassador in Washington, Jorge Argüello. In parallel, there are rumors in the North American capital that Joe Biden would announce new donations.
Monday is a holiday in the United States and for that reason he stayed on Tuesday to finalize the signatures. The Casa Rosada maintains confidentiality regarding the laboratory with which the first contract is signed. However, sources from Pfizer revealed that his contract is still a few days away, so that on Tuesday the agreement will be with Johnson & Johnson or Moderna.
In both cases, the authorization of the Anmat is still pending. The version is that the Argentine comptroller body would give the go-ahead in a few days, something that had been rumored. It is important in both cases for several reasons:
* Moderna is moving towards authorization to apply to minors.
* Johnson & Johnson is a single dose and would solve the problem with many people reluctant to sign up and get vaccinated.
* The two vaccines are candidates for a combination with those already applied in Argentina.
Of equal or greater importance is the signing of the agreement with the government of Washington. The quantities for the first shipment are clear: 2.5 million doses of vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. In the United States they say they could still ship them in July, but it will depend on the speed with which the contracts are signed and the vaccines are approved by Anmat.
In Washington there are strong rumors that Biden would announce new donations. It is not an attack of new humanitarianism, but rather the conviction in the United States government that it is essential to vaccinate the entire world to avoid new variants and, above all, that the virus affects the North American economy again.
The DNU signed by Alberto Fernández on Friday night was the product of long months of negotiations, especially in terms that have to do with the responsibilities in cases of death or damage to health and also in a timely manner with regard to the guarantees in in case compensation has to be paid. The text was discussed in extensive meetings by Zoom in which were the Minister Vizzotti, the presidential advisor Cecilia Nicolini, the Secretary of Legal and Technical, Vilma Ibarra, representatives of the laboratories and officials of the State Department. Therefore, once the DNU is published, contracts and agreements are expected to flow more or less quickly.
Argentina received and will receive in July an enormous quantity of vaccines – surely more than 15 million doses – so that these agreements carry more political weight than in the field of health. It is normalizing things with Washington by not putting obstacles to a donation and ending one of the many controversies with the opposition. At the same time, the range of vaccines is opening, so that Argentina will have all those that are offered internationally today
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