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Transparency Venezuela published a report referring to the vaccination program against covid-19 in the country. He assured that “misinformation, opacity and irregularities in the Venezuelan government’s management of the pandemic” have reigned.
“The non-transparent policies, implemented by the Venezuelan government regarding the pandemic and the immunization plan, generated uncertainty in the citizenry and promoted illegal practices that put the health of the population at risk,” said the ONG.
He added that vaccines help save millions of lives each year and have been a determining factor in the eradication of certain diseases around the world.
“Therefore, they are considered a key tool to protect people and stop the spread of covid-19,” he said.
And he denounced: “The government of Nicolás Maduro not only disregarded the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), regarding the prioritization of vaccines, aimed at guaranteeing protection to the most vulnerable groups in the first place. Rather, it favored partisan structures and public institutions.”
Vaccination tied to the Patria System and the PSUV
He also stated that a large part of the process was conditioned to the Patria System, as well as to the participation of communal councils and groups created by the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
«The improvisation and the opacity about the vaccination program showed the low supply of biologicals that was registered during the first three months of its application. The authorities reported the availability of 2,230,000 doses, between the Russian Sputnik-V and the Chinese Sinopharm. But it proved impossible to serve more than 300,000 health workers and 4.5 million older adults,” he said.
He mentioned that “the great demand” at that time facilitated the diversion of vaccines to an illicit market, reducing the doses available to health personnel.
“In addition, it affected those who chose to buy the vaccines without the security of receiving a refrigerated biological product; and without the certainty that it had not been replaced by a placebo, ”he added.
prosecution
In the same way, he stressed that to determine responsibilities, the National Academy of Medicine asked the Attorney General’s Office to open an investigation.
Transparency Venezuela reported that during 5 months of 2021 it applied a survey to 819 people, of which 283 knew of cases of vaccine payments.
Likewise, he assured that he was aware of legal proceedings opened by the Public Ministry against people who sold the vaccines and set the price in dollars.
State secret
“In addition to the irregularities denounced and documented by civil society and academia, the vaccination plan became a state secret,” said the NGO.
And it specified that during the first 10 months, data related to the shipments received, the doses applied according to the brands and coverage by prioritized groups were not constantly published.
“The demands for reliable information on the vaccination plan and contracting for the acquisition of the doses, including those consigned by the more than 900 civil society organizations that make up the Anti-Corruption Coalition, collided with the wall of opacity and government silence. », he denounced.
Therefore, in the absence of credible data, specialists and researchers began to make projections about vaccination in Venezuela.
“In September 2021, a scientific community estimated that 3,376,080 people had completed the scheme against the coronavirus. For its part, the Delphos pollster and the Public Policy Unit of the Simón Bolívar University (USB) spoke of 2,300,000 people with the 2 doses, while the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) indicated that 6,000,000 of Venezuelans had received their scheme against covid-19 in that same period, “he explained.
He added that “the inconsistencies in the figures provided by the government continued with the announcement, in December 2021, of 90% of those immunized.”
Likewise, he emphasized that meanwhile the data that the authorities consigned to PAHO demonstrated the opposite.
“Barely 40% of the population had completed the vaccination scheme,” he specified.
health in crisis
He insisted that since the detection of the coronavirus in the country, in March 2020, Transparency Venezuela has warned about the increased risks of corruption in dealing with the pandemic, including vaccination.
“In the same way, it has pointed out the deepening of the serious pre-existing problems that make up the Complex Humanitarian Emergency caused by this scourge, where one of the most affected sectors has been health,” he added.
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