Commission created to investigate vaccine case in Peru

Lima, February 15 (RHC)-- Peru's Minister of Health, Oscar Ugarte, announced this Sunday the creation of a Commission to investigate the scandal of Sinopharm vaccines that some government officials applied in September 2020, before the acquisition of the doses and the vaccination plan against COVID-19.

Ugarte confirmed that the Commission will be chaired by Dr. Fernando Carbone.  He said: "The commission will also be made up of the Medical, Nursing and Pharmaceutical Chemists Colleges to investigate who are the officials who have been vaccinated and to determine the measures to be adopted," he added. 

"I hope that with the measures that are being adopted and that should not affect the procurement and vaccination processes, we will be able to achieve goals that we want," Minister Ugarte said.  

Following the announcement by Peruvian health authorities, Foreign Minister Elizabeth Astete resigned from her post after confessing that she applied the Sinopharm laboratory's vaccine last year.  "I am aware that I made a mistake, which is why I decided not to receive the second dose," Astete pointed out.

The vaccine scandal broke out when it was revealed that former President Martin Vizcarra participated last October in the clinical trials of the vaccine of the Chinese laboratory Sinopharm.  Vizcarra himself took part with his wife in the clinical study of the Chinese laboratory Sinopharm and stated that he did not know if he had really received the vaccine or the placebo.

Not only did the Peruvian foreign minister submit her letter of resignation after receiving a first dose before the vaccines arrived in the country, but also Pilar Mazzetti, who served as Minister of Health.

The resignation of Pilar Mazzetti, who headed the Health Office during Vizcarra's administration, comes at a time when the country started this week the vaccination against COVID-19 with doses from the Chinese company Sinopharm.