The country has not applied the vaccine to 10% of the health personnel yet Members of Parliament are already receiving their doses, even before the elderly. Surprising?

The 277 people that make up the National Assembly of Venezuela began to receive the Sputnik V vaccine against covid-19, in compliance with the plan proposed by the Government, which until February 23 had immunized less than 10% of the health personal and that excludes the elderly.

At least three “opposition” MPs reported having received a dose of the Russian drug on social media, part of the 100,000 doses that arrived in the country in mid-February and that will be enough to protect less than 0.5% of the population.

MPs Alfonso Campos, Anyelith Tamayo and Rubén Limas announced that they had already been vaccinated, but the list of immunized MPs is longer and includes, as of February 23, at least ten other politicians, according to parliament sources consulted by Efe.

In any case, the total vaccination of every Member of Parliament is expected in an organ where 92% of the seats are officially occupied by members of the ruling party, since this is contemplated by the government plan that, however, assured that health workers would be the first to receive protection in this first stage.

This vaccination scheme will include the direct relatives of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, since both his wife and son, Cilia Flores, and Nicolás Maduro Guerra, have a seat in the Chamber.

The president explained last week that after the vaccination of health workers, the “social” personnel who are “protecting” people in the streets, the security forces and the high government authorities, including the Members of Parliament, will be immunized.

In this way, several leaders in Chavismo will also benefit from this preferential treatment, including MP Diosdado Cabello, who suffered from the disease in 2020.

Meanwhile, the vaccination plan that began on February 18 has provided protection to several dozen health workers, without an official balance being known so far.

Several state governors and pro-government mayors have reported the arrival of some doses of Sputnik V in their regions, while the national Government ensures that this scheme is already being applied throughout the country, without giving information on the amounts in each case.

For her part, the governor of Táchira (in the border with Colombia) from the opposition, Laidy Gómez, denounced the “diversion” of some vaccines in the state and asked the Government to adhere to international standards and give priority to health personnel.

Shameless

The Venezuelan opposition condemned on February 23 that the Venezuelan authorities make politicians a priority in vaccinating against covid-19 after it became known that several MPs related to the Nicolás Maduro Government had received a dose.

“They are shameless. Only 100,000 vaccines are available at the moment, which also needs 2 doses to be effective, but they are given to ‘politicians’ instead of health personnel, police and military officers or workers in essential sectors such as food production and distribution, which would be logical in any civilized country”, wrote party leader Marco Aurelio Quiñones on Twitter.

Several anti-Chavistas also spoke on the topic, criticizing the vaccination of the Parliament members when “they do not represent the first line of people to be immunized,” according to a press release from the opposition.

“For these same reasons, officials from other countries who have been vaccinated in contravention of the rules, have had to resign and be subjected to an investigation with possible criminal consequences,” said former MP Dinorah Figuera.

Several members of the opposition met online on February 23 to discuss the Government’s handling of the vaccination plan that began five days ago in Venezuela.

The politicians met under the framework of a delegated commission, a figure that leader Juan Guaidó launched in December 2020 to extend his term as head of Parliament.

Guaidó decided to use this body as a way to validate his decisions, after considering that the legislative elections held in December lacked democratic standards that made his coalition not participate.

The commission, a figure that the Parliament activates when it is in recess, is recognized by some countries such as the United States or Colombia but has lost its validity in Venezuela due to the installation of a new Legislative body that is controlled by Chavismo.

The opposition believes that Chavismo is politicizing vaccination against covid-19 for having prioritized Members of Parliament, mayors, governors and other government authorities.

The bloc also expressed its disagreement with the Government allowing a private market for vaccines because, according to the opposition politician María Mulino, “it will translate into sales in dollars that only 5% of the Venezuelan population will be able to pay,” given that the average wage of Venezuelans is less than a dollar a month.

Translated by José Rafael Medina