Iraqi MP to question the ministry of health for "failing" in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic
Shafaq News / Iraqi MP Kazem Al-Shammari pledged, on Monday, to question the Iraqi Minister of Health in Parliament for "failing" in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
Yesterday, Sunday, the Iraqi authorities began the procedures for receiving today its initial batch of COVID-19 vaccine doses in a shipment donated by China.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Health and environment revealed Pfizer's condition for delivering the vaccine, which is to legislate a law protecting the American Company from liability and compensation.
According to a statement, MP Al-Shammari criticized “The Ministry of Health’s reluctance to provide Covid-19 vaccines and to contract with Pfizer."
He stressed that the Iraqi people have the right to ask, "What has the Ministry of Health provided, why it has not imported any vaccine so far, …Let us say that China has not donated, what will the ministry do? Will it launch a global (begging) appeal?"
"Iraq is a rich-in-oil country and has financial capabilities in which its annual budget includes billions of dollars,… for how long Iraq will still depend on donations from other countries?..... vaccines, beds, laboratories, and coronavirus testing devices all are donations." He said.
Al-Shammari expressed his intention to question the Minister of Health and environment Hassan Al-Tamimi about the ministry’s reluctance to provide the vaccine, and the reasons why the ministry announced that it imported the first batch while it was coming through donations from China? In addition to many questions about the ministry’s failure to confront the Corona epidemic. "
Earlier in February, The Ministry of Health spokesperson Seif Al-Badr said that the coronavirus vaccine should arrive in Iraq by the end of this month, adding that Iraq adopted three vaccines: China's Sinopharm, Britain's AstraZeneca, and the American Pfizer.
