Cecilia González, former head of the National Immunization Program, who led the successful vaccination against covid-19, reported that she was replaced from her position before leaving it and that Undersecretary Cristóbal Cuadrado said that she did not give the width.
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The former head of National Immunization Program (PNI) of the Ministry of Health, Cecilia Gonzalezrevealed that while on vacation in May he found out that he had already been replaced in his position, before handing it over.
He is one of the key figures in the successful vaccination against covid-19, who since the end of 2017 became the head of the PNI, a position he held until June 30. This despite the fact that the analyzes said that he would keep his position.
“Despite what the president said, even in his speech, that the technicians were not going to move, the PNI took on such great importance, it is so strategic that opened the possibility of bringing someone you trust and with political affinity. When you turn 60, you can apply for a retirement incentive and I had done it the previous year, in 2020, and you can also reject it if you win it, “he told Third.
González continued explaining that “I won it, but at the beginning of 2021 I rejected it and last year in October I won it again and I did not reject it at that time because I thought there were many things to do in the PNI, I was quite convinced. that I was going to continue, but I had this intuition that because of how strategic the department is, maybe they took me out”.
The doctor pointed out that, in March, she had a meeting with the undersecretary of Public Health, Christopher Square“which was not very good for us, because He told us that we did not give the width”.
“Then on another occasion, a person from the deputy secretary’s cabinet told me that he was going to be a liaison between our department and the deputy secretary to build trust. The message of that decision is that there was no trust in our workand also the authorities have the right to put the people who seem most appropriate, either by political or technical trust, “he added.
The lack of trust was generated, in González’s opinion, by a shipment of syringes intended to be used with the Moderna vaccine, which was delayed by the closure of the port of Shanghai in China.
“There Cuadrado calls us and tells us how it is possible, how we do not have a plan B and that we did not give the width. At that moment I told him: what a pity that he did not know the process, maybe that was where my mistake was, ”she recounted.
Holidays
Then from the first of May took vacation after knowing that there would be a link, a person whose profession is a civil engineer.
“I told my boss that I didn’t need a middleman and that under those conditions I didn’t need to continue. There I took my vacations and when I came back I was going to return to my office to make a formal delivery of my position and then I was going to take early retirement. While on vacation I found out that my office was occupied and that someone had arrived, ”he said.
said person is Maria Paz Bertogliaepidemiologist and president of the Chilean Society of Epidemiology, who during the pandemic achieved great notoriety on social networks for criticizing the health management of the government of Sebastián Piñera.
“When I came back I talked to my boss and told him that under these conditions I was not going to come back, because I no longer had an office and I was not going to sit anywhere if I was the boss. Until June 30 I was the official boss. I asked my boss to make a delivery with my team, a formal delivery of my position. I did it on June 17 with the whole team, and María Paz was also there. I made the delivery 15 days before, but I was the boss until last Thursday. I don’t know what figure they put her in, I imagine it was an honorary contract, but I don’t know, “he said.
political exit
When asked if her departure was due to political motivesGonzález replied that at least for his management it should not be, so presume that it is for the first.
“We lived through the worst pandemic in the last 100 years and we did a spectacular job, recognized all over the world, then by management it should not be, it could be because he doesn’t like me or because he was annoyed that I said ‘too bad you don’t know about the buying process’. I think he has to be political,” she said.
Then, she argued that “I arrived at the Minsal in 2012 as an advisor, then at the end of 2017 I became head of the department. I was 10 years in the Minsal and my management was never questioned, that’s why I think it was more politicalto have someone of political confidence in a position in a department that is strategic”.
About the current management of the pandemic in the government of Gabriel Boric, said that it has not been neat from the communication point of view.
“Tell people that you can remove the mask, but they still have to go to get vaccinated, they are messages that do not go together. You have to insist that you have to get vaccinated, but communication has disappeared. Before there were press outlets, the minister would talk about vaccines and now the few press outlets that I have seen are not so emphatic about vaccination. For me, what has not been up to par is the communicational part, ”he said.
Along with this, he reported that the minister Maria Begona Yarzaknowing that he would leave, “he said that I could not leave, that he wanted to work with me and told me to give him a few days to see what he could do, but then we never spoke again, the decision was upheld.”
Finally, regarding the complaint of conflict of interest with the GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceutical Laboratory Limitedwhich sold vaccines to the State in 2019, pointed out that said acquisition was made seven years after she worked there and that since 2012 she had been in the Ministry of Health.
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