Patricia Bullrich: Alberto Fernández demands 800,000 dollars from an opposition leader for “damages against honor”

Alberto Fernández demands 100 million pesos (800,000 dollars) to repair the “damage against honor” of which he felt a victim a year ago. The money must come from the pocket of Patricia Bullrich, former Minister of Security during the presidency of Mauricio Macri and today one of the most radical voices of the conservative opposition. In late May 2021, Bullrich accused Fernández and his former Health Minister, Ginés González García, of not buying the Pfizer vaccine because the company had refused to pay bribes. Both the president and the then minister announced complaints and lawsuits, but Bullrich stood, without any proof, on her claims. This Tuesday, both appeared before a judge in a mediation. The former minister remained in her statements and the president in her demand. The trial will last for years and will surely come to court.

In May 2021, there was a shortage of vaccines against covid-19 in Argentina. Less than 10% of the population had received a dose and supply was limited to vials from Britain’s AstraZeneca, as well as Russia’s Sputnik and Chinese products. The opposition then charged against the absence of the Pfizer vaccine, of American origin.

The history of Pfizer’s vaccines in Argentina is followed in chapters. In July 2020, when Argentina had been confined by the virus for almost four months, the Government announced that Pfizer was going to carry out one of its clinical tests in the country. Thousands of Argentines would undergo an experimental vaccine and, in return, Argentina would have preferential treatment (in prices and priority shipments) when the product was ready. The relationship between the Government and Pfizer was optimal. But things did not go as expected. The Government of Buenos Aires refused to pay for the distribution to DHL (the company to which Pfizer granted exclusivity to guarantee the cold chain) and Pfizer did not accept the possibility of suffering claims of “negligence”, as established by the approved law of urgency by Parliament by all political forces. In the midst of a major global vaccine shortage, Argentina was running out of Pfizer products.

The opposition hastened to take advantage of the weak flank of the Casa Rosada. From one day to the next, the press claimed that if there were deaths from covid in Argentina it was because the Pfizer vaccine had not been applied. The blame for the health catastrophe lay in the official commitment to Russian, Chinese and British vials. The atmosphere was agitated. In February 2021, the “VIP vaccination clinic” scandal had broken out. Hundreds of people, including politicians, businessmen and journalists linked to Peronism and Kirchnerism, had received the injection out of turn and, in some cases, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Health. Bullrich rode the wave of discontent and denounced on television that if Pfizer was not in Argentina it was because it had refused to pay the bribes that Fernández demanded. He then said that if “the VIP vaccination” was a crime, the request for a bribe from Pfizer had been “a hundred times worse.” The pharmaceutical company denied the complaint, Bullrich never presented evidence and Fernández filed a complaint for “damage to honor.” A year later, little has changed.

Bullrich appeared before the judge and when he left the court he became the voice of those who died from the pandemic, just over 129,000 people since March 2020. “I ratified my statements, due to the opinion I gave regarding the president of the nation should know that a fundamental contract for the Argentines had not been signed. That contract was not signed and he should have known about it. That brought pain to the Argentines. Today I was a channel of expression for all Argentines who suffered from not having a vaccine on time, ”he said, although he no longer spoke of bribes. The former minister did not meet, as expected, face to face with President Fernández, who remained in an adjoining room. “He stayed in a small room,” Bullrich shot. Instead of Fernández, his lawyer, Gregorio Dalbón, spoke. The complaint, he said, will be maintained because the opposition leader did not want to retract. And she anticipated that, if she wins, the president will donate the money to the Malbrán Institute, in charge of investigating infectious diseases in Argentina.

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