AMLO yields to pressure and will authorize companies and local governments to purchase COVID vaccines.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced this Friday in his morning conference that he has instructed the Ministry of Health to issue a decree that will allow any company or local government in the country to acquire vaccines.

MEXICO CITY (Times Media Mexico) – Faced with pressure from governors, businessmen, and citizens, Lopez Obrador has given in to his refusal to not allow the purchase of vaccines by state governments private sector. “I want to announce that I have instructed the Secretary of Health, Dr. Jorge Alcocer, to issue a communiqué today establishing that any company or local government that wants to acquire vaccines to apply them in Mexico has authorization, only that they must attach to the request the contract for the acquisition of the vaccines, the quantity, and the pharmaceutical company,” (SIC) he said.

This authorization is general, so the acquisition can be public or private, he added.

López Obrador added that among the requirements it is to present the contract with the pharmaceutical company. Companies or governments need to inform when the doses they have ordered will arrive and that the pharmaceutical company is one of those already authorized in the country, such as Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca-Oxford, “or (those that) are about to be authorized.”

“And also (that they inform) where they are going to apply them. The latter so that there are no duplications because there is a National Vaccination Plan. And we are going to comply with the commitment to vaccinate all Mexicans,” he said.

What do companies and local governments have to do?
AMLO added that those interested would have to send a letter to the Secretary of Health explaining that they want to participate in the vaccination. That they have already acquired a number of doses they are going to specify in the letter, the pharmaceutical company they come from, and that they will apply the vaccines to their workers or distribute them by the means they consider.

“If they want to contribute to the plan to acquire vaccines, they can do it through the public charity for vaccines and help to have the vaccines. We have the budget anyway, but it can be used for other needs, of course. That is another way to participate according to the National Vaccination Plan,” AMLO added.

He added that this is done, so his “adversaries” do not say “there are prohibitions.”