The Peruvian COVID-19 vaccine scandal and re-thinking the path to public trust

ABSTRACT

In February 2021, the Peruvian ‘vaccinegate’ scandal broke when the media reported that nearly 500 experimental doses of an ongoing COVID-19 trial were given to key individuals not enrolled in the trial. Indeed, vaccine doses were administered to leading politicians, such as the former President and his wife, and other high-level health officials and academic leaders at the universities overseeing ethical compliance and administration of the trial. The ‘vaccinegate’ scandal in Peru is but one example of how the lack of a coordinated global response to COVID-19 has allowed countries to act in the best interest of some, ultimately, failing to secure a democratic approach to the right to health for all during a global pandemic. While Peruvian vaccinegate is an example of the egregious use of power to further cronyism amid fear and mounting COVID-19 related death, unfortunately, it is not an anomaly. We argue that the sensationalisation of the event has distracted from the existing precarious health system in Peru and the ways in which long-existing abuses of power evident prior to the pandemic limit a just response to it.

KEYWORDS:

• Peru
• politics of COVID-19
• vaccine equity
• corruption
• global health justice

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to our Peruvian and American colleagues, such as, Jesse Clark and others who prefer not to be named, who provided critical feedback as these events continue to unfold. This work was generously supported by the Connaught New Investigators Fund at the University of Toronto and the Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council Partnership Engage Grant.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).