Peru vaccine scandal: president says 487 officials got early Chinese shots
- President said officials ‘took advantage of their position’ to receive early inoculations of Chinese Sinopharm vaccine
- Peru only began its immunisation drive, starting with health care workers, in early February
Peru’s president announced that 487 officials, including the former ministers of foreign affairs and health, took advantage of their privileged positions to secretly receive early inoculations of a Chinese coronavirus vaccine that the government then bought for doctors and other health workers battling the pandemic.
Interim President Francisco Sagasti said the officials’ names are being turned over to prosecutors as the intensifying scandal over unequal access to coronavirus vaccines rattles Peru’s government.
“These people who were part of our government failed to do their duty as public servants,” Sagasti said in a television broadcast. He said he was furious at the attitude of “many public officials who took advantage of their position to be immunised with the Sinopharm vaccines that came in addition to those used in clinical trials”.
The Chinese embassy said in a statement that it did not have information on the identity of those vaccinated, since trials were was conducted by Peruvian universities, and rejected the use of “terms such as courtesy vaccines, donations or perks” used by Peruvian media.
But revelations of the secret vaccinations have generated frustration among health workers and stained the reputation of former president Martin Vizcarra, who confirmed that he and two family members were vaccinated before Congress removed him in November over a corruption allegation.
