If private companies want to buy vaccines, go ahead: AMLO

Martha Martinez
Reform Agency

Sunday, December 27, 2020 | 21:33

Mexico City- President Andrés Manuel López Obrador assured that companies that want to buy vaccines against Covid-19 abroad and market them in the country will be able to do so.

In a video on networks, he said that although his Administration has no impediment in this, they will take care that access to doses is not subject to influentialism and reiterated that its application will be universal and free.

“It has been said that why it is not allowed to be sold in pharmacies. Of course, if there are companies that want to buy vaccines abroad, we have no impediment, that is, so that the vaccine that is bought abroad is sold, What we are doing is buying all the vaccine that is needed to guarantee that nobody is missing and that it is free, nothing more than at the time, not because I have money I am going to get vaccinated first, or I am a politician or I am influential and I get vaccinated first, not that no, that’s not the thing, it’s for everyone, “he said.

The federal president reiterated that the only condition for access is that the application plan must be respected, which states that health sector personnel will be attended first and then the elderly population and people with risk factors such as diabetes, obesity and hypertension.

López Obrador said that starting in January, Mexico will receive 35 million doses from the Chinese pharmaceutical company CanSino, which does not require the temperatures required by Pfizer and is a single application.

“The commitment is that they give us two million in January, three million in February, three million in March and so on, we have already signed this agreement and thus with other pharmaceutical companies and with other governments, because fortunately we have very good relations with all the Governments, with all the peoples of the world, “he said.

He reported that for the vaccination day they will use the infrastructure with which the social programs are currently dispersed and, in cases where people live in areas of difficult access, the application will be carried out at their homes in operations similar to those that are applied in operations for the delivery of pensions to older adults and people with disabilities.

“We are going forward, although it is a material issue, it is important that it is known that we have, in a first phase, 32 billion pesos available for the purchase of vaccines and that the application of vaccines is going to become universal, that is, For everyone, rich and poor, the only thing that will be taken care of is that there is no influentialism and that the program is respected.

“First the doctors who are saving lives in Covid hospitals: nurses, health workers. Second, older adults wherever they are, they live in Lomas de Chapultepec or in San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León, or in Lacandona or La Tarahumara, women, men, respectable elderly, everyone, the application of the vaccine is universal and free, nothing more is a matter of waiting the turn that corresponds to each one, “he reiterated.

He anticipated that as part of the vaccination plan, it is expected that in the first months of 2021, teachers and parents will also be attended, with the objective that the states with a green light can reactivate the classes.

He reiterated that by February, Pfizer will send a total of 1,400,000 doses to the country, which will be enough to immunize around 750,000 health workers.

The President called on the population to continue taking care of themselves, because some will be vaccinated until March or April.

“We have to take care of ourselves, because it can touch us in March, it can touch us in April and we must avoid getting infected, take care of ourselves so that we do not get sick, we must continue with a healthy distance, keep ourselves, if we have nothing important to do on the street if it is not essential to go out, we are going to stay at home, “he said.