[Member spoke in Spanish, interpreted as follows:]
Thank you very much for the question.
COVID vaccines must be public goods. As we have said, however, these treatments have become commercial products. Of course, the laboratories gave priority to countries that could pay, since there was limited production. Vaccines should be treated as public goods. Vaccination in Bolivia is free for Bolivians without discrimination.
Because of the multilateral trade system, vaccines were not available for less developed countries due to cost. When we wanted to purchase vaccines, it was a problem for Bolivia, which has to be able to respond to any request from a citizen about a vaccine and provide them with a vaccine. In the current system of international companies, we haven't been able to provide these services. We had to sign a contract or we could not get any vaccine. The situation was a difficult one.
These vaccines should be considered—as we consider them—public goods. The current system prevented us from getting vaccines without entering into a contract with these countries. Some providers spoke of having a contract. Others spoke of previous agreements. It was not possible to enter into agreements with those companies.
Thanks to COVAX, we received vaccines from Pfizer. We had to enter into an agreement with the COVAX mechanism, and that was how we got Pfizer. We could not sign direct bilateral agreements with the producers, because that would have threatened our constitutional obligations and abilities.