Mexico finally develops a COVID-19 vaccine

Vaccine diplomacy concerns regarding China

Mexico announced last week that they have developed a COVID-19 vaccine named “Patria”. This announcement comes 2 years after vaccines rolled out in the US, Europe and China.

The problem with this vaccine is it was designed for the original virus. Yet it is being promoted as a booster shot. Conacyt developed the vaccine in partnership with Avimex, a veterinary pharmaceutical firm in Mexico.

Dr. Fidel Alejandro Sanchez, who studies the virus strains in Mexico, doubts the vaccine will be effective as a booster. The next step for the vaccine is to request emergency use authorization by the Mexican health authority.

Mexico has been importing 9 million doses of Abdala from Cuba, nearly 225 million doses of Astra-Zeneca and Pfizer and some Chinese vaccines.

The concern for the United States and Europe is China and Russia exporting their own vaccines to US allies. This has been the case for many Latin American and South American nations, accepting China’s vaccines and Russia’s Sputnik-5 vaccine in exchange for favorable trading agreements.

To make matters worse for the citizens of Mexico, Latin and South America. It is the lack of any viable vaccine injury compensation schemes or programs.

The COVAX Facility, a creation of the WHO, GAVI, the Gates Foundation and UNICEF, commenced operations in the the fall of 2020 with a sole purpose of obtaining and distributing vaccines to nations that could not purchase directly from pharmaceutical companies such as Astra-Zeneca or Pfizer.

But there was a big catch for any country that wanted to receive the vaccine at deep discounted or no cost purchase price. They could not sue the manufacturer. So both the country and its citizens gave up their own sovereignty to get free vaccines. Sounds familiar. I wrote about it here, here, here.

In the spring of 2021, COVAX Facility announced a compensation program that would commence accepting applications March 31, 2021. The CounterMeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) was used as a template.

Many readers understand my frustration and continued determination of obtaining data and more details from the US government regarding the CICP.

The COVAX Facility operation is much worse. There has been no reporting of the status of any vaccine injury petition filed, compensated or dismissed.

My contacts at Reuters, Washington Post and Miami Herald have come up empty. My own emails and phone calls have gone unanswered for the last 2 years.

The real problem is that no one government or organizations of governments has any jurisdiction over this creature. Not the UN, The Hague, home of the International Criminal Court, and not the US even though President Biden has donated over $4 Billion in cash plus enormous amounts of purchased vaccines to the COVAX Facility.

The fear of many, once COVAX Facility commenced operations, is that no one can hold this organization accountable. And distributing the COVID-19 vaccine was not the end goal. It is now highly probable that COVAX Facility can be used for the distribution of all vaccines, thus a global vaccine distribution and administer with no equal, no one else to hold them accountable.

We shall see. And we need to demand our own government to hold them accountable, especially with our billions of tax dollars.

Keep learning, keep challenging yourself and always, always question authority.

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Wayne Rohde, author of two books on the National Vaccine Injury Compensation program.

www.thevaccinecourt.com