When Bolivia suffers an unprecedented explosion of Covid-19 infections, the vaccination policy of the Government of Luis Arce has encountered resistance from various leaders and social sectors of the ruling party who are against inoculation and the decrees that establish the obligation. of carrying a vaccination card to enter public and private institutions, which has provoked the threat of protests and triggered new tensions.
The Government had put into force two decrees to promote the vaccination campaign setting the obligation from January 1 to present the vaccination card or a negative PCR to access various spaces, but five days later the measures were postponed to January 26 after the reactions of discontent and the collapse of the medical centers where vaccines are applied.
The requirement for the license was delayed despite the successful result of registering almost half a million people vaccinated in three days, when previously it was barely between 2,000 and 3,000 a day, according to official data.
However, sectors related to the ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS), including informal merchants, rural teachers and neighborhood groups from El Alto, a city bordering La Paz, have publicly criticized the decrees and announced protests for their repeal.
“The first protest against the Government in 2022 will be the great march for the defense of life by the repeal of these decrees. They cannot force the population to get vaccinated, “Toño Siñani, leader of the informal merchants of El Alto, who plans to march to the city near La Paz to protest, told France 24.
Political leaders and legislators resist vaccination
But resistance to the vaccine has also occurred at the level of senior leaders, as in the case of the vice president of the country, the Aymara David Choquehuanca, who this week accepted the first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine, which was applied to him by public pressure. the hand of the Minister of Health, Jeyson Auza.
Choquehuanca had defended itself from criticism, stating that it overcame the disease twice with indigenous medical treatments and eating grass, but it also revealed that it even ingested chlorine dioxide, a substance considered dangerous by the WHO / PAHO to treat Covid 19, but that in Bolivia it is authorized by a law approved by the MAS in 2020.
In addition, in the last few hours, the national press has revealed that the president of the Senate and high leader of the MAS coca grower, Andrónico Rodríguez, and 23 other parliamentarians – most of them official – are not vaccinated either.
Greater confidence in ancient medicine and myths about vaccines
On the contrary, and to show that there are social sectors that support the campaign, the leader of the female peasant group Bartolina Sisa, Flora Aguilar, agreed to be inoculated while pregnant, although she asked that traditional indigenous medicine be revalued to confront the pandemic.
The preference for medicinal plants and distrust of science seem to be the cause of the rejection of vaccines in indigenous, peasant and popular sectors of the MAS, but they are also mixed with myths and conspiracy theories about vaccines, such as that they cause sterility in women and genetic changes, topics widely denied in the world.
Auza defended on Friday that Bolivia is committed to the complementarity between scientific medicine and indigenous knowledge, but has also stressed that vaccines save lives because the lethality of the disease has dropped from 6.2% in the first wave to 0.7 % in the fourth.
Former minister regrets setback and “bad example” of leaders
The former Minister of Health and public health expert, Guillermo Accounts, questioned that the Government has temporarily backtracked with the application of the vaccination card due to “a lack of comprehensive planning,” according to what he told France 24.
In his opinion, for the requirement of the card to work, it is necessary to massively increase the number of positions and vaccination personnel, an intense communication, education and orientation campaign and an agreement “of all against the Covid” to add the collaboration of the universities and companies.
He also regretted what he considers “the bad example” of some State authorities and political leaders who refuse to be vaccinated and, worse, the conduct of some social leaders who have received the vaccine, but support the protests of their popular sectors against it. Vaccination card.
He recalled that with good planning, Bolivia has managed to eradicate various diseases with the participation of peasants and indigenous people in the inoculation plans.
Ideological disputes in the midst of a fourth wave with unprecedented contagion
In addition to the aforementioned sectors related to the MAS, other minority groups of evangelical Christians and the conservative right have also spoken out against the decrees that oblige vaccination.
Ideological disputes regarding vaccines occur in the middle of the fourth wave of infections with a number of infected never before seen in the pandemic that has reached the peak of 11,190 daily cases and that, according to the Medical College of Bolivia, could double in ten days.
In recent days, the number of deaths has been around 40 daily deaths and on Friday it reached 45, which is still a lower figure than those registered in previous waves.
The seriousness of the infections has made President Luis Arce, together with several social leaders, announce on Friday the suspension of mass events to celebrate the founding of the Plurinational State on January 22, a date that commemorates the re-founding of the country with a Constitution. promulgated by Evo Morales in 2009.
(Thread) After a deep reflection, carried out with our social organizations, we have decided not to carry out massive activities in commemoration of the Day of the Plurinational State of #Bolivia, on January 22, in order to protect the health of the population. pic.twitter.com/FLsc6TpPbW
– Luis Alberto Arce Catacora (Lucho Arce) (@LuchoXBolivia) January 7, 2022
The Government has confirmed that the Omicron variant already circulates in the country, although it considers that the Delta is the cause of the unexpected explosion of cases in Bolivia.
According to the Ministry of Health, 10.5 million first, second, third and single dose vaccines have been applied to a total population of 11.8 million inhabitants.
Since the pandemic began, Bolivia has reported 664,009 infected and 19,933 deaths.
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