The former Secretary of Public Health, Carmen Cabezas, appeared this Monday as a witness in the trial being held at the Barcelona Court for the paralysis of the Covid-19 vaccination of police officers and civil guards stationed in Catalonia, and maintained that neither she nor the then Director General of the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS), Josep Maria Argimon, assumed the coordination of that vaccination process.
The Prosecutor's Office charges the former Minister of Health, Alba Vergés (ERC); the former Secretary General of the department, Marc Ramentol; Argimon, and the then director of the Servei Català de la Salut, Adrià Comella, with a crime of administrative prevarication, for which she requests 12 years of disqualification. Unlike the popular accusations, the public ministry does not direct charges against the former head of Services of the Department of Health, Francesc Xavier Rodríguez.
During the interrogation, Cabezas was questioned about a WhatsApp message sent on March 23 by a member of Vergés' cabinet, Judit Vinyals, in which she was told: "Again, the minister asks me to stop the Civil Guard and the National Police. We won't be able to argue it. We would have to stop it."
After receiving that message, as she explained, Argimon asked her to call Vinyals and, after speaking with him, and considering that it was a decision that "could be misinterpreted," she requested that the instruction be issued by someone with sufficient hierarchical rank within the Department and that it be formalized by email.
On March 24, Ramentol sent an email stating that, from that day on, priority would be given to the vaccination of people between 60 and 65 years old (about 500,000 in Catalonia) and essential groups within that same age range.
CHRONOLOGY
Cabezas stated that on February 8, 2021, she drafted an email detailing the characteristics of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was to be administered to security and emergency forces and bodies in Catalonia "without surnames." That information was sent to the Ministry of the Interior and the then director of Services of the department responded indicating that they were working on it.
She added that she was "always willing," but that she was not called until March 4 for a meeting at the Department of Interior, in which representatives from the Departments of Health and Interior and the vaccination coordinators for the Police and Civil Guard participated, with the aim of presenting "technical information" about the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The vaccination of essential groups began in early March, but around the 12th, suspicions of "serious adverse effects" associated with AstraZeneca emerged, which led the Ministry of Health to order the temporary suspension of its use between March 15 and 22.
As of March 22, after a new communication from the Ministry indicating that the benefits outweighed the risks, Catalonia decided to prioritize the administration of this vaccine to people aged 60 to 65 and, within those ages, continue vaccinating essential groups: "We insisted on combining with the essential ones."
SHARED THE MEDICAL CRITERION
Cabezas indicated that by March, about 350,000 doses had been received in Catalonia, but that in the 60 to 65 age group alone, there were half a million people pending immunization, so the vaccines were insufficient, while those destined for essential services were "reserved."
At that time, she specified, there were more than 1,385 patients hospitalized for Covid in Catalonia, 70% over 60 years old, so the priority of vaccinating that age group was shared by all. However, she recalled that she insisted on the convenience of also immunizing essential groups, "even if they were not of that age."
The response she received was that the 60 to 65 age group would be prioritized also within the essential groups and, regarding the WhatsApp messages she received, although she admitted that they might be written "a bit quickly," they are the ones that "are in the instruction" of the case.
Regarding the definition of essential groups, she pointed out that those who performed an "essential function in society" and carried out in-person work were chosen, so they were considered to be more exposed to the virus.
However, she indicated that a later study concludes that the risk for this group was "similar" to that of the general population —except in the case of healthcare workers, where it doubled—, unless they presented any previous pathology.
Regarding the role of the then director of Health services, Xavier Rodríguez Guasch, in the management of the vaccination campaign, he has underlined his "total involvement".
THE CENSUSES
On the other hand, the former manager of organizations and professionals of the Servei Català de la Salut, who also testified as a witness, explained that the censuses of the National Police and Civil Guard arrived "later than the rest" because these forces sent their lists late.
In contrast, she highlighted that the Mossos d'Esquadra sent the census for vaccination in "very few days" and without incidents, and stressed that the Servei Català de la Salut processed all censuses within the same deadlines for all forces and that this procedure was applied uniformly to all essential groups, without exceptions.