MEXICO CITY (AP) – The president of Mexico said on Monday that he will not receive the COVID-19 vaccine because his doctors have told him that he still has a high level of antibodies since he was infected in January.
“I have sufficient levels of antibodies and at the moment it is not essential to have a vaccination for now,” said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
López Obrador reportedly got the AstraZeneca vaccine last week, based on his address in a downtown neighborhood, where he lives in an apartment at the National Palace.
The president repeatedly said that he would wait his turn in line to be vaccinated and did not want this to become a “show”.
At the end of March, López Obrador had said he would be vaccinated when people over 60 in the central neighborhoods of Mexico City had their first vaccines.
But he said a second group of doctors he consulted told him it was not necessary, although he did not rule out receiving what for most seniors will be the second dose in June.
So far, Mexico has received 14.7 million doses of various brands of vaccines and has administered nearly 9 million injections so far. It is still a small amount, considering the country’s population of 126 million.
The 67-year-old leader was criticized at the beginning of the pandemic for failing to convey the seriousness of the situation. He has always refused to press for more drastic blockades used in other countries, calling these tactics “authoritarian”.
The country has recorded more than 204,000 COVID-19 deaths confirmed by tests, although the government has set the actual COVID number at almost 324,000.