https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/21/argentina-president-decries-unforgivable-vaccine-scandal
President of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez, has decried a covid vaccination scandal as unforgivable. The scandal has caused the heath administrator to resign. Gines Gonzalez Garcia was caught aiding people in getting the Russian covid vaccine used in Argentina before their age group would be normally available. Garcia would move people up the list ahead of other people who were already scheduled to get the vaccine. “Gines was a great minister, and on top of that, I like him. But what he did was unforgivable,” President Alberto Fernandez said Argentina has had over 2,000,000 positive covid cases, and approximately 51,000 covid related deaths. Argentina started their vaccination process in December.
I think that this is a big deal. For the head of the people’s health for an entire country that has had millions of covid cases being extremely unethical is disturbing and worrisome. Politics is about ethics and what is right. As a member of high stature in the political landscape you have to be carrying out actions that are going to benefit the greater good and the people of Argentina. Garcia using his positioning in his government to benefit people who didn’t need to be given the vaccine as much as the older and at risk people in his country is the definition of unethical.
From an International relations perspective Garcia using his political stature to benefit people who don’t need it is troubling because Argentina as a whole is a country that is on the rise. They have a substantial amount of regional influence and are looked up to by other countries in the region due to their growing economic strength. Therefore for someone of this stature in a government with this much influence is going to cause some backlash throughout the region and could possibly shed light on other people throughout the government who are corrupt and it could also put other countries political heads to be under a microscope and be held accountable.