Nearly 500 Peru gov’t officials secretly vaccinated against coronavirus

Peru’s president announced Monday night that 487 officials, including the former ministers of foreign affairs and health, took advantage of their privileged positions to secretly receive early inoculations of a Chinese coronavirus vaccine that the government then bought for doctors and other health workers battling the pandemic.

Interim President Francisco Sagasti said the officials’ names are being turned over to prosecutors as the intensifying scandal over unequal access to coronavirus vaccines rattles Peru’s government.

“These people who were part of our government failed to do their duty as public servants,” Sagasti said in a television broadcast. He said he was furious at the attitude of “many public officials who took advantage of their position.”

“They took advantage of their positions. It confirms that the priority wasn’t for colleagues in the intensive care units who faced death 24 hours straight without even breaks for food,” said Godofredo Talavera, president of the Peruvian medical federation.