Daily US Times: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico said on Tuesday that his country is doing better than the US in dealing with the Covid pandemic, even though Mexico’s per capita death rate is probably higher and the country has vaccinated less than 1% of its population.
López Obrador said that comparing countries is in “bad taste,” but went on to say “the most powerful nation on earth, our neighbor, did worse than us.”
The Mexican government’s “estimated” coronavirus death toll is now about 201,000. The US death toll is around 500,000, but its population is 2.6 times larger.
Moreover, estimates of excess deaths in Mexico since the start of the coronavirus pandemic suggest the Covid-19 death toll is now well above 220,000. Mexico has administered about 1.7 million Covid-19 vaccine doses, while the US has given 64 million shots.
López Obrador blamed rich countries for “hoarding” vaccines, calling that “totally unfair,” and said “the UN has to intervene.”
López Obrador has demanded the US vaccinate the millions of Mexicans living in the United States with or without legal documents; Mexico says its consulates in the US have even been registered as vaccination centers.
But a photo circulated on social media showed a sign posted outside one Mexico City vaccination center last week stating “No Foreigners Will be Vaccinated.”
Presidential spokesman Jesús Ramírez said that was a mistake, and promised everyone over 60 years of age, foreigners and Mexicans alike, would have access to vaccines.
Ramírez said: “That was a photo of one center, and that message was corrected.”
But the country’s director of disease prevention and control, Dr. Ruy López Ridaura, said the exclusion of foreigners apparently occurred at other sites in the opening weeks of the vaccination effort.
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