Three indicators seem sufficient to reflect the dramatic moment that Argentina is going through in a pandemic. Deaths on average in the last ten days (500) are equivalent to those who, in normal times, die from cardiological and oncological conditions. The level of infections in the same period exceeds for every 100,000 inhabitants -6,520 against 1,331- the one verified in India exploded by Covid. In the vaccination range, our country is slightly higher: 16 doses per 100,000 inhabitants against 10.3 in India.
In this scenario, the government of Alberto Fernandez it exhibits three problems that emerged in 2020. Now they have deepened. There is an objective management deficit. The difficulties of political leadership and health management are reiterated. Communication to society in emergencies is imprecise and confusing.
The origin of so many imbalances could respond to diagnostic errors that were already noticed last year. The government believed that the virus would never arrive. When he realized the opposite, he began a quarantine that he had maintained since March waiting for the peak of infections. That peak only came in October. I know consumed a good part of social patience and the economy sank.
In order not to arouse false expectations, as on that occasion, a roadmap should be drawn up. And tell things how they can happen. This is how it is stated, at least, by experts such as Roberto Debbag, Conrado Estol or Adolfo Rubinstein. There won’t be just three more weeks of limitations and then some normalcy will return. The second wave promises to remain all year round with different intensity. During descents there should be a so-called “valve planning”. Automatic openings after lockdowns underpinned in statistics. It was learned by many nations in Europe that had a hard time.
In these stages, it would be necessary to resort to measures that are not taken properly. Experts agree that the tests could not go below 500 thousand per day. They make 80 or 90 thousand every so often. Only in this way can one become aware of the dimension of contagion. A mitigating factor against the vaccination campaign in which the Government has been failing.
The AstraZeneca vaccine, a headache for the Government in Argentina. Photo: DPA
Never, however, does he assume his share of responsibility. Now the great enemy would be the laboratory of AstraZeneca, manufacturer of the Oxford vaccine, which does not meet the stipulated supply. That August 2020 agreement caused the Government to open a conflict with the American Pfizer. Negotiation lines were pulled with Russia and China. Satisfaction for Kirchnerism. Both countries also do not fulfill the millionaire lots promised. For that reason, the government ends up begging from Pfizer through Washington. To compensate, he announces the approach with Cuba for a vaccine that has not yet begun the experimentation in phase III. That is called mismanagement.
It is illustrative to put it in figures. The Government signed five contracts for the purchase of three vaccines. He paid US $ 380 million for 50% of the doses. So far it has received only 25%.
More problems for Alberto
The situation also occurs when the President demonstrates inconveniences to exercise political leadership. He had to again demand that the governors comply with the restrictions and controls. Last time it didn’t happen. The effect of its Decrees of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) seems to be losing strength. Hence his announcement of a project that he will send to Congress so that, according to sanitary criteria, he is granted powers to adopt restrictions. I would not want to go through again, as it happens, the ungrateful drink that Horacio Rodríguez Larreta’s challenge with face-to-face classes means.
Again the President cited Germany as an example. Premier Angela Merkel has just obtained from her Parliament powers to adopt drastic measures when the pandemic demands it. It will take into account the epidemiological parameters that are not subject to discussion. What a little difference. Here the head of the City exhibits statistics that indicate the very low incidence in the contagion curve that the presence of primary school students in the classrooms has. The Government and Buenos Aires refute them.
Alberto, in truth, disguises that ambition with a call for convergence with the opposition. A year ago his word could have aroused expectation. Your credibility has dropped like the value of the peso. Is it the President who on Monday spoke of abandoning politics to combat the pandemic? Or the one who invented on Tuesday that 150 homes in Avellaneda had not been finished in 2019 just because of macro-hatred? In Together for Change they are attentive to another question: that that text don’t mask the handover of superpowers. Kirchnerism was able to make a profit in its previous decade.
Problems for the President also abound in his own region. Axel Kicillof, the governor of Buenos Aires, was dissatisfied with the lack of harshness of the new measures. He took his own: the controls that caused chaos at the main entrances to the City. He insisted until the last minute with the idea of a total closure. Otherwise control of the Conurbano becomes impossible. Although it fills it with police and fines. He even designed an exceptional public transport organization chart, which he had to retract, only for essential workers. Of health and nutrition. Nothing more. Ultimately, Alberto paid attention to Martín Guzmán’s advice. Another full shutdown would demolish the possibility of any minimal rebound in the economy.. Bad news for election time.
The controls of the Province in Panamericana and Acceso Oeste generated a vehicular chaos. Photo: Marcelo Carroll
The Columbia University academic seems definitely targeted by Kirchnerism. At senior levels. Sergio Berni, the Minister of Security, disqualified him in statements on television. “The pandemic is too serious a thing to leave in the hands of an economist,” he shot. The barrage of the military doctor would be a trifle compared to another piece of information. Cristina Fernández questioned the decision to authorize increases in service rates.
Guzmán ended up stumbling in the middle of the conflict. After announcing an adjustment in gas, he announced the resignation of the undersecretary of Electric Power, Federico Basualdo. A man with a direct link to the vice president. The exit was stopped after a call he received from the Instituto Patria. The head of Enargas (National Gas Regulatory Entity), Federico Bernal, also intervened. He has the photo of the Minister of Economy pinned with a pin.
In the same week, there was another palace dispute. Alberto decided to extend for three months the concession, which expired last Friday, to the Hidrovía company. SA (with a Belgian majority and national participation) for the trunk navigation system of the Paraná-Paraguay rivers. 80% of Argentine exports come out there. The decision was made at the limit, with Gabriel Katopodis as “transitory minister” of Transport (he was already designated Alexis guerrera), because Kirchnerism struggled for its nationalization. He sniffed the value of a missing box.
Sanitary driving
To the problem of political leadership are added the deficiencies in health management. Carla vizzotti was weakened as head of Health after the VIP Vaccination scandal. It would not be the only issue that turns against him. The woman (without questioning her academic aptitudes) does not appear with solvency when she must communicate news about infections or vaccines. Contrast his image with the precision and neatness of his colleague in the City, Fernan Quirós.
Vizzotti makes general considerations. The use of the word often betrays her. Amid the stress of the health system and the lack of some supplies, he called on doctors to “rationalize” the use of oxygen. Vital to treat Covid patients, even those who are not serious. Unfortunate advice.
Health Minister Carla Vizzotti with President Alberto Fernández in Ezeiza, where they went to receive vaccines from China.
Due to the increase in the number of patients, the use of medicinal oxygen tripled compared to 2020. That year Argentina exported 493 tons to Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. In the first quarter of this year – with the second wave on top – exports reached 260 tons. Sample of unpredictability. Political brooch: the President recently donated 10 tons to Bolivia amid its health crisis. Gift for Evo Morales and his presidential disciple, the economist Luis Arce.
It was not the only recklessness of the Government. Several picketer movements convulse the streets of the City daily. They do not have official representation although they maintain links with others (Movimiento Evita and CTEP de Juan Grabois) inserted in the structure of the Ministry of Social Development. Those protesters, in recent days, added to their usual claim of social plans, another exceptional: the transfer of vaccines. It was agreed that they will receive 70 thousand.
It is difficult to object to the immunization of people who perform tasks in a highly precarious situation. An arbitrariness, in any case, in a country where there is still a lack of vaccines for essential and vulnerable sectors. Not just those over 60. The immunization among health personnel was not completed either. Much less in the police and security forces. There, only 8% or 10% of the members were inoculated. Last week the 50th police officer died of Covid.
The President insisted that, in the midst of the serious health crisis, there is no room for political speculation. The Minister of the Interior, Eduardo De Pedro, and Kirchnerism, however, seem to have lost interest in altering the electoral calendar. In any case, would go later for the direct cancellation of the STEP. Alberto’s word always has a double face.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/the-plague-and-the-k-besiege-the-president/
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