Five years after the scandal of the VIP Vaccination Center during Alberto Fernández's government, the Justice system has moved forward against those who received Covid-19 vaccines outside the established health criteria for the population. Federal prosecutor Eduardo Taiano requested to investigate 34 people, including Eduardo Duhalde, Hilda “Chiche” Duhalde, Horacio Verbitsky, Jorge Taiana, and Eduardo Valdés.
The final decision will now rest with federal judge María Eugenia Capuchetti, who must determine whether to summon all, some, or none of those named for questioning.
The deceased Gines Gonzales García, alongside Carla Vizotti and Alberto Fernández
The request arises after the Federal Court ordered to deepen the investigation not only into the officials who authorized the irregular vaccinations but also into those who received the doses.
According to the ruling, there is sufficient evidence to consider that the beneficiaries could have acted as necessary participants in the crime of embezzlement, which carries penalties of between two and ten years in prison.
For Taiano, those who accessed the vaccines early were not mere passive recipients of a benefit. The prosecutor stated that they contributed to the scheme by accepting the doses despite knowing they were not part of the groups authorized to receive them at that time.
One of the episodes under investigation occurred on February 18, 2021, when ten doses intended for Hospital Posadas were transferred to the Ministry of Health. There, among others, Verbitsky, Jorge Taiana, and Eduardo Valdés were vaccinated. Nine of the beneficiaries were registered as “Strategic Personnel,” a category that, according to the investigation, they did not qualify for.
Eduardo Valdes, Zanini, Horacio Verbitsky, Jorge Taiana are some of the beneficiaries of the vaccination center.
Another incident occurred on February 1 of that year. A vial with five doses was transported to Eduardo Duhalde's home in Lomas de Zamora, where the former president was vaccinated along with his wife, daughters, and private secretary.
The prosecutor's office emphasized that home vaccination was reserved for individuals unable to travel and asserted that there is no evidence that Duhalde had a physical impediment that justified the procedure.
Alberto Fernández, Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, and Axel Kicillof: the leaders of the pandemic
The investigation also includes another 36 doses applied irregularly at Hospital Posadas between December 2020 and February 2021. According to the file, they were intended for individuals selected based on personal, family, or political connections, while part of the healthcare personnel had not yet completed their vaccination.
The scandal became public in February 2021 after Horacio Verbitsky revealed in a radio interview that he had called his “old friend” Ginés González García to access the vaccine. The revelation triggered an immediate political crisis and led to the resignation of the then Minister of Health.
