Amid a limited supply of vaccines, COVID-19 cases have been on the rise across the Americas, PAHO officials said.
Amid a struggle to get enough coronavirus vaccines in the Americas, there are reports of proliferation of false doses on the black market in several countries in the region, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said Wednesday.
“We have received information from Mexico, Argentina and Brazil that some doses have been offered through social media, illegal markets that offer vaccines that are likely to be counterfeit,” said Jarbas Barbosa, deputy director of PAHO during a round. of weekly press.
“They are not real vaccines or maybe they are doses stolen from a health center that no one can ensure were stored properly,” Barbosa said.
A woman who received a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine during a vaccination days campaign at the Duke of Caxias, near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [Ricardo Moraes/Reuters]
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Pfizer had identified counterfeit vaccines in Mexico and Poland. According to the report, 80 people in Mexico had received false doses at a clinic after paying $ 1,000 per dose.
According to the report, people who received the fake vaccines were not adversely affected. Citing authorities, the report told Poland that the fake vaccines were confiscated before being administered.
During Wednesday’s press conference, PAHO Director Carissa Etienne said the organization was also concerned about the hesitation. He said “insidious rumors and conspiracy theories” were “inspiring in fear and costing lives.”
He said PAHO was working with technology companies to combat the misinformation that has rapidly proliferated on the Internet and social media.
“Because unreliable information spreads quickly, PAHO collaborates with technology companies like Twitter, Google and Facebook to deal with fake news and ensure the public can easily find accurate information,” he said.
Reports of fake vaccines and hesitation in the Americas occurred amid a scarce supply of vaccines in the region and a growing number of COVID-19 cases.
To date, Brazil has vaccinated 11.6% of its population and Mexico has vaccinated 8.7%. Other nations in the region lag behind [Ricardo Moraes/Reuters]
“Latin America is the region that currently has the most vaccine needs,” Etienne said, “this region should be prioritized for vaccine distribution.”
“No one will be safe until we are all safe.”
Nearly half of the world’s coronavirus deaths over the weekend occurred in the Americas, said Etienne, who added that almost all Central American countries report an increase in infections. He said Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic were the hardest hit.
“Over the weekend, the world reached a tragic milestone: more than three million have lost their lives to COVID and nearly half of those deaths happened right here in the Americas,” Etienne said.
Chile is seeing a plateau in some cases, while Brazil reports a drop. But despite the drop, Etienne said, cases in Brazil “remain alarmingly high.” Argentina ranks third regionally in the weekly number of new cases. Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia and Uruguay also experienced a worsening. And Mexico, after weeks of decline in new cases, sees a slight increase.
The good news is that, after strengthening public health measures, Chile (houses) has seen plateau cases and, after a few difficult months, Brazil (Brazil) reports a drop in cases, including the Amazon region.
– @DirOPSPAHO # COVID-19[FEMININE
– OPS / OMS (@pahowho) 21 d’abril de 2021
Regionalment, els Estats Units i Xile han avançat més en les seves campanyes de vacunació (ambdós han vacunat al voltant del 40 per cent de la seva població), segons Our World in Data.
Uruguai ha inoculat més del 30 per cent de la seva població, mentre que Brasil ha vacunat fins ara l’11,6 per cent i Mèxic ha vacunat al voltant del 8,7 per cent. Altres nacions de la regió es queden enrere.
Durant la sessió informativa, els funcionaris van dir que la majoria dels països de la regió confien en el mecanisme mundial COVAX, que té com a objectiu distribuir equitativament les vacunes als països en desenvolupament.
Etienne va dir que fins ara s’han subministrat més de 4,2 milions de dosis de vacuna a 29 països de les Amèriques a través de COVAX i que hi ha més dosis en camí.