AT THEIR DINNER table in Mendoza, Antonio and Marta, husband and wife, disagreed over the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. “If it’s available, and free, why not?” asked Antonio, a sprightly businessman in his early 70s. “Not for me,” retorted Marta, a decade younger. “No way I think the Russians have the safe answer to this virus.”
On December 29th Argentina’s government unleashed Sputnik V across the country, issuing some 300,000 doses to all 23 provinces and the city of Buenos Aires. Elsewhere in Latin America, Mexico, Chile, and Costa Rica had been vaccinating on a small scale before the holiday with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. But Argentina, to quote a presidential adviser, “is leading the charge to inoculate all”.
Still, the cavalry has been met with doubts. Alberto Fernández, Argentina’s 61-year-old president, broke his promise to be the country’s first recipient, live on television, after Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, who is 68, said he would put off his jab because of his age. Then Mr Fernández’s government sidestepped the normal procedures of its medical regulatory agency, ANMAT, in authorising Sputnik V.
On the eve of the vaccine’s launch, ANMAT specialists leaked internal memos to the Argentine media, expressing concerns about “adverse effects” of Sputnik V on older patients in trials in Russia....
