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ARCHIVED - Murcian health minister faces harsh criticism for vaccinating himself and office-based health service staff
The Minister has apologised but refuses to resign; opposition politicians are having a field day demanding he step down and criticising the regional government
A huge political row has broken out in the Murcia Region after it was revealed that the regional minister for health, Manuel Villegas, and many office staff within the region health service (SMS), were vaccinated against Covid-19 last week, apparently against the protocols established by the national ministry for prioritising who is given the vaccine and in what order.
On Wednesday 13th January the managing director of the Murcian Health Service (SMS), Asensio López, gave the order for a SUAP ambulance to go to the Habitamia building, headquarters of the SMS located in the Murcian district of Espinardo, to vaccinate the regional minister, senior officials and SMS officials, as well as legal advisers and administrative staff of the Ministry directed by Villegas, without distinguishing between the personnel that habitually travel to hospitals from the rest. Almost 400 people work at Habitamia, including administrative, assistants and legal services personnel, Human Resources etcetera.
Villegas explained that 618 employees of the SMS central services had requested the vaccine, and 466 have now being given their first dose. He maintains that this is in line with "the national protocol", since they are workers of the health system and the objective is "to avoid outbreaks in the centers, where they are working to control the pandemic." Villegas defended that at this time all services are essential.
He also justifies his own vaccination because he is a doctor and therefore belongs to "group 3", that of "other workers in health and social health centers." “We are focused on the pandemic at its most critical moment. The next three weeks will be the hardest, so we have to seek unity, "he said in response to calls for his own resignation and those of the remainder of the vaccinated senior officials and health officials.
There have been widespread calls for his resignation from those who say that it is more important to vaccinate the elderly and frontline staff working in health centres who have not yet been vaccinated, as well as those saying that police, firemen etc should take priority over health service personnel not working on the front line.
Similar situations have occurred in several other areas of Spain where politicians including local Mayors, have been vaccinated as a priority and in some cases, families of elderly patients who were visiting a carehome or even a priest was vaccinated simply because there were vaccines left over which would otherwise have been wasted. And of course, there have been situations whereby some people have paid to be vaccinated and just “happened to be visiting an elderly relative” when there was spare vaccine left over. The police are involved in a couple of those situations at the moment.
There has been significant public debate over this situation nationwide, as some maintain that those who must make the day to day decisions about the pandemic and have a high level of contact with other people because of their work, attending meetings, public acts, press conferences etc, should be included as “priority cases” as they are such an important part of the whole process of managing the virus and are constantly in a position of vulnerability because they are unable to self-isolate or work from home and do their job.
Others say that politicians should lead by example and not take the vaccination themselves, prioritising other groups of workers.
It has also been argued that vaccines are being wasted in some cases and should be given to anybody who happens to be there at the time rather than thrown away should there be excess vaccines.
It’s a complicated topic.
Manuel Villegas has refused to resign, maintaining that he has not done anything wrong and politicians from opposition parties are having a field day, demanding his resignation.
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