The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Said Monday that it is not opposed to private companies buying vaccines against COVID-19 and distributing them among patients who want to pay for them.
But he noted that there are not many provisions and warned companies not to try to buy vaccines that were already promised to the Mexican government.
“We do not oppose that the vaccine can be marketed, that companies can import and sell it to those who have to pay for the vaccine,” said López Obrador. “It’s something that the vaccine is on the world market, because there isn’t enough production yet.”
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“We would oppose if the ones we have hired are delivered to a private company, we would not allow this, we would report it, but this is not the case,” he added.
Mexico’s federal health risk commission must authorize the use of any vaccine. López Obrador pointed out that, at the moment, no company has applied to import vaccines privately.
But no doubt the issue is already in the public arena, and experts have warned that counterfeits, fraud and theft could begin to emerge amid the public’s desperation to get vaccinated.
Wal-Mart of Mexico, the country’s largest retail store, had to issue a statement on Monday to deny an ad circulating on the internet showing a coronavirus “vaccine” allegedly available for about $ 20.
“We clarify that the information spread on social media about the alleged supply of the COVID-19 vaccine in our units in Mexico is false,” the statement posted on the company’s Twitter account said.
Some people in Mexico have criticized López Obrador for centralizing the purchase and distribution of the vaccine, and for putting the vaccination campaign in the hands of the military, as has happened with many other programs in his government.
The president says the military is better equipped to oversee the safety and cooling chain that some vaccines need.
He has also promised that the vaccines will be free and available to everyone in Mexico, but so far the country has only received about 50,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. To vaccinate 1.4 million health workers, the first in line to be vaccinated, Mexico would need 2.8 million doses.
The government has placed its hopes on three vaccines that are already in phase 3 of clinical trials, or that are entering it, in Mexico. He announced that Novavax Inc. will conduct some of its testing in Mexico. Cansino of China and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceutical company have also been conducting tests in Mexico.