Haiti – COVID-19 : «Authorizing private importation of vaccines, an irresponsible decision» dixit APH
27/06/2021 10:14:57
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Reacting to the Notice of the Minister of Public Health Dr. Marie Gréta Roy Clément, on June 23 from Public Health authorizing the private sector to import vaccines against Covid https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34063-haiti-covid-19-the-ministry-of-health-authorizes-the-private-sector-to-import-vaccines.html Pierre-Hugue Saint-Jean, President of the Association of Pharmacists of Haiti (APH) reacted to this decision which it describes as “irresponsible”.
“[…] By choosing to set up an accelerated procedure for processing import permit applications for pharmaceutical agencies wishing to import anti-Covid 19 vaccines, the Ministry of Public Health highlights the weakness of the State and the lack of will to attack the problem of anti-Covid vaccination in depth […]
Stressing “Of course, this decision could be a business opportunity for the pharmaceutical sector but not for the population because :
- The cost of vaccines will be exorbitant and the majority of the population will not have access to them;
- The MSPP does not control the distribution channels for pharmaceutical products;
- there is a high risk of introduction into Haiti of false anti-Covid 19 vaccines due to the possible multiplication of uncontrolled points of sale;
- Haiti does not have a quality control laboratory that can verify whether a vaccine is fake or not.
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The President of the APH recalls “[…] at the global level there are illegal circuits for the distribution of fake anti-Covid 19 vaccines. At the beginning of March 2021 INTERPOL announced that it had already seized several thousand doses of false vaccines against Covid 19.”
To reduce the risk of being vaccinated with a false vaccine, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) had urged the populations on March 26th “not to use anti-vaccines Covid 19 outside of State-run vaccination programs.“
For the President of the AHP “[…] it is obvious that the decision to give the private sector the possibility of importing anti-Covid 19 vaccines is irresponsible and unfair. To deal with a pandemic, the mercantile approach should not be prioritized. In this sense, the APH asks the Haitian State to take all measures to ensure that quality vaccines are accessible to all because nothing is better than the health of the population.”
HL/ HaitiLibre
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