Argentina, Mexico to ask UN to intervene in vaccination

President Alberto Fernández on Tuesday asked Mexico to join the proposal that Argentina and France want to raise at the G-20 for the COVID-19 vaccine to be considered a "global good" and to cede its rights so that any country can produce it. Both leaders said they were against countries stockpiling vaccines and their intentions to ask the UN to intervene. Fernández made the proposal in a state visit to Mexico, in a time when 70 people in Argentina are under scrutiny for taking the COVID-19 vaccine ahead of the immunization plan.

He charged against the judicial investigation underway, saying there are no specific laws against taking the vaccine ahead of the immunization plan. Still, Fernandez said it is a "reprehensible act." Argentina and Mexico were allies in reaching an agreement with Russia to purchase the Sputnik V vaccine, whose first 200,000 doses arrived in Mexico City almost at midnight on Monday.

Both countries signed a contract with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to produce its drug in Argentina and to package and distribute it from Mexico throughout Latin America. Both Mexico and Argentina have surpassed two million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and immunized close to 1% of their population.

(Image Credit: AP)