Fernández, López Obrador demand fairer access to Covid-19 vaccines

Argentina and Mexico this week called on rich nations to ensure Covid-19 vaccines reach other countries in a fairer and more equitable way, calling on them to be considered as “global good.”

President Alberto Fernández and his Mexican counterpart Andrés Manuel López Obrador made the request at the latter’s daily “mañananeras” press conference on Tuesday, during the Peronist leader’s three-day trip to Mexico.

The two leaders riffed on the importance of ensuring Covid-19 vaccines reach all nations across Latin America, as well as the wider world, warning that vaccines are being monopolised by rich countries.

Fernández spoke of a proposal he plans to make to France at the next G20 summit, an initiative that he hopes López Obrador will back.

“The idea is to raise, at the G20, the need to declare the Covid-19 vaccine a global good, in such a way that intellectual rights are given up and all countries can produce them freely,” he said.

That idea is likely to be met with stiff resistance from pharmaceutical firms.

Argentina and Mexico are working together on the coproduction of the Astrazenaca oxford University vaccine for the region.

Fernández, who visited a site on Monday where the shot is produced, said at the presser that the Argentine laboratory mabxience had sent enough of the main active ingredient needed to produce 12 million doses to Mexico back in January. He then pivoted on to call for equal access to the drug for all nations.

“I want to assist Mexico in its process of universalising the vaccine, which has been monopolised by some countries,” declared the Peronist leader

Latin America and the Caribbean, a region where more than a quarter of the world’s Covid-19 deaths have been registered, is falling behind amid slow inoculation campaigns. Argentina has struggled to seal deals to secure enough vaccines and the pace of inoculations is well below the government’s target.

Quizzed about the vaccine shortage, Fernández said that “many contracts were signed” and that they were “being breached for different reasons.”

“That is what is happening to Argentina,” he added. “We are trying to overcome the lack of vaccines by accepting all the offers received.”

He assured, however, that “from April, Latin America will begin to have the necessary vaccines to protect our people.”

López Obrador highlighted the efforts made by President Fernández to generate a production chain for the vaccine in Latin America.

“We are going to have millions of doses for Latin America thanks to the efforts of the president of Argentina,” said the Mexican president.