Peru: Pedro Castillo Gets Vaccinated and Promotes Immunization

The President of Peru, Pedro Castillo, was vaccinated this Friday as part of the Vacunatón (vaccine marathon) program and to confront a campaign of conservative sectors against the Chinese vaccine of Sinopharm, whose efficacy against the coronavirus has been discredited without scientific support.

The president was vaccinated along with his wife, Lilia Paredes, on the opening day of the fourth "vacunathon" held in Lima. The campaign implies that the vaccination centers installed in the Peruvian capital will operate uninterruptedly from Friday to Sunday for 60 hours.

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The vaccination of Castillo coincided precisely with the beginning of the mass application of the Sinopharm vaccine to the general population, after having been applied earlier in the year to health personnel and the Armed Forces.

The Minister of Health, Hernando Cevallos, announced that the President was inoculated with the first of two doses of the Sinopharm drug and called on the population to do the same.

He also informed that the "Vacunathon" will be carried out in Lima and the neighboring port of Callao, with 22 large sites being set up for this purpose. 

" The President @PedroCastilloTe together with the head of @Minsa_Peru, @HCevallosFlores, supervises the fourth Vacunatón and first of his government. In addition, the head of state will be immunized with the first dose of Sinopharm."

On the other hand, he criticized the campaign launched in social networks and Internet against vaccination by conservative sectors that "invoke arguments without scientific grounds, something officially considered irresponsible, since it has been certified by several international institutions, studies of the World Health Organization and medical professional associations."

Similarly, there was a crusade initiated months ago, during the electoral campaign, by the now right-wing parliamentarian Ernesto Bustamante against the Sinopharm vaccine.

There are currently 5.7 million Peruvians vaccinated with the full two-dose schedule, equivalent to 17 percent of the national population, and there are around 2.5 million more who currently only have the first dose.