A tweet stating that the “illegal exercise of medicine” is being carried out in the covid-19 vaccinations, because there should be a doctor who “orders the injection”, has been shared more than 1,300 times since January 11, 2019. 2022. However, what he claims is false: there is no need for a doctor to administer vaccines, so the crime does not apply, experts consulted by AFP indicated.
“The SANITARY DICTATORSHIP arrests a doctor who delivers certificates with his personal data and does not recommend vaccinations, but does NOT intervene in any vaccination for ILLEGAL EXERCISE OF MEDICINE, in which there is no responsible doctor who orders the injection “, he says Tweet which was also replicated as a screenshot on Facebook (1, 2, 3).
Screenshot of a tweet made on January 14, 2022
The author of the tweet is the Argentine lawyer Julio Razona and some of the statements he has published on this social network have already been verified by AFP Factual (1, 2).
The doctor referred to in the January 2022 tweet is the homeopath Eduardo Yahbes, who was arrested not for “illegal practice of medicine”, typified in article 208 of the Penal Code Argentina, but for violating the measures ordered by the authority in the context of the pandemic and for “insert false data into a document”, Indian the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires on its official website.
The agency reported in the same statement the arrest of the doctor and three more people for the article 205 of the Argentine Penal Code that indicates: “Whoever violates the measures adopted by the competent authorities to prevent the introduction or spread of an epidemic will be punished with imprisonment from six months to two years.” They were also charged with the article 295, what does it say: “The doctor who gives in writing a false certificate, concerning the existence or non-existence, present or past, of any disease or injury, when this results in detriment”.
“Yahbes is registered as a doctor with a specialty in pediatrics, graduated from the UBA, and although his registration has expired on 01/01/2021, it is in force due to an extension arranged within the framework of the covid-19 pandemic. Likewise, an inspector from the Ministry of Health stated that under no circumstances can the certificates be provided, and that the address on Coronel Diaz Street that functioned as an office lacks authorization for this purpose.”, explained the Public Prosecutor’s Office in a note published on January 12, 2022, announcing the freedom of the doctor, but with some restrictions.
People wait to be inoculated with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine once morest covid-19 at the Lanús National University in Buenos Aires, on May 23, 2021 (AFP / Alejandro Pagni)
What happens at the vaccinations?
“DOES NOT intervene in any vaccination for ILLEGAL EXERCISE OF MEDICINE, in which there is no responsible doctor to order the injection”, indicates the second part of the viral publication, which denounces the absence of a health authority. However, this is false.
The article 208 of the Argentine Penal Code addresses the “illegal practice of medicine”. There it is indicated that the penalty is from 15 days to one year in prison for those who “without title or authorization” to practice medicine, prescribe or apply “medicines, water, electricity, hypnotism or any means for the treatment of people’s illnesses, even free of charge“, promises the cure of diseases on a fixed term or by secret or infallible means, or lends “your name to another who does not have title or authorization“to practice medicine.
Carla Mitelman, lawyer and member of the Institute of Health Law of the Public Bar Association of the Federal Capital, explained to AFP that “there are some confusions of concepts in the tweet”. According to the specialist, the illegal practice of medicine would occur in the event that a person suffers a decompensation due to the application of the injection once morest covid-19 in the vaccination center and is attended by non-medical personnel.
However, if there are no doctors in the vaccination clinics, and a case of decompensation occurs, it would not be an illegal practice of medicine but “negligence and non-observance of sanitary regulations”.
In response to the AFP’s query regarding whether it was a condition that there be a doctor at the vaccination clinics to order the application of the vaccine, the coordinator of the Subcommittee on vaccinology of the Argentine Association of Microbiology, Daniela Hozbor, answered: “Not at all”.
And he explained: “You have the national vaccination calendar where you have the different doses according to age and certain population groups. These are indications of the vaccination schedule. You don’t need a prescription for that. Now, if you leave the national vaccination calendar and want to receive a vaccine, you need a medical order and then you do get vaccinated. But everything on the calendar is a schedule and you don’t need a medical order.”.
“Vaccines once morest covid-19 are no exception, in terms of not needing a prescription. A medical order was only requested for vaccination in pregnant women when the vaccination campaign once morest covid-19 began. But now for the booster doses, which are a prioritized group, the medical prescription is no longer requestedHozbor added.
In the same sense, attorney Mitelman pointed out: “The regulations for the authorization of a vaccination center establish that there must be a medical control during the care, but its function is not to “order the injection”, since the people who attend to be vaccinated must present the corresponding medical orders when vaccines not contemplated in the Official Compulsory Vaccination Plan”.
“Medical prescription is when it escapes some guideline. Otherwise, it is not needed”, added Hozbor, and indicated that the guidelines are worked on in the Commission National Immunizations.
The guidelines of the Ministry of Health of the Nation for vaccination of covid-19 are found in the document “Technical Guidelines: Summary of current recommendations for the National Vaccination Campaign once morest COVID-19”, dated October 7, 2021. There, at the point “Precautions and contraindications for vaccination once morest COVID-19” indicates in which patients the vaccine is absolutely contraindicated: “Previous severe allergy to any of the components of the vaccine, and anaphylaxis and severe allergic reactions to the first dose”.
Then, in the section on special situations, the document specifies that “At the time of vaccination, pregnant people must present a vaccination prescription”. In no other case is a medical prescription indicated for the injection. That is to say: it is not necessary that there be a doctor ordering the injection.
According to the Ministry of Health of the Nation, the presence of a doctor is not necessary. “The guidelines establish that the vaccines are administered by trained health personnel“, Juan Manuel Castelli, Undersecretary of Health Strategies of the Ministry, told AFP.
