The national Covid vaccination program has opened new opportunities for corruption, revealing that the battle against the scourge has not been won quite yet.
In Mexico City, leaders of the government workers union attempted to jump the line and get on the list of healthcare workers due to be vaccinated, despite not being employed in the health sector.
Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said leaders of union local Section 12 who tried to obtain Covid shots will be identified and punished.
“I want to be very emphatic about this: the president has been very clear about it [and] I’m totally in agreement: there are rules to receive the vaccine. The first to receive [it] are healthcare personnel on the front line in treating Covid …
“… there is [to be] no influence peddling here.”
In México state, an investigation is under way at a military hospital where a doctor has been accused of obtaining Covid vaccinations for his family.
President López Obrador confirmed Wednesday that the army had been accused of allowing the vaccination of a doctor’s wife and one or two of his daughters.
The president urged citizens to denounce such acts of influence peddling.
Also in México state, the director of a hospital will be punished for having arranged the vaccination of two family members.
The state health minister said José Rogel Romero of the Adolfo López Mateos medical center would be sanctioned and that the filtering of candidates for vaccination would be reinforced.
It wasn’t revealed whether the two family members would be allowed to get the second shot necessary for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
In Coahuila, 29 medical personnel who allegedly have no contact with Covid patients were vaccinated, the newspaper Milenio reported.
More Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine arrived in Mexico today from Belgium, bringing the total to 53,625 doses.
Mexico’s vaccination program has begun in three states with the inoculation of healthcare workers on the front lines of the battle against Covid-19. Senior citizens will be up next. Their shots will begin in January.
