Illicit vaccine sites irk Panamanians fed up with inequality

PANAMA CITY (AP) — One Monday in June in an upscale neighborhood of Panama City, people noticed something odd: Strange cars were coming and going from the Coco del Mar Suites, a nondescript three-story residential building surrounded by luxury oceanside high-rises.

It wasn’t long before the newspaper La Prensa cleared up the mystery. In a second-floor apartment that was recently spruced up with a new coat of paint and had air conditioning and electrical work done, someone was running a clandestine COVID-19 inoculation site purportedly offering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Investigators soon linked it to yet another scheme of underground injections a week earlier, this one on the 43rd floor of a residential skyscraper in the even wealthier coastal neighborhood of Punta Pacifica.

Authorities have only confirmed 32 people received shots between the two operations, but it nevertheless sparked outrage in Panama, where the government is supposed to be the only supplier of coronavirus vaccines, free and prioritized by age and risk level. These recipients were perceived as trying to use their privilege to cut in line even as the country sees a new rise in infections.

“Around here they are people with money," said Jacinto Ortega, who was in Punta Pacifica on a recent day to deliver groceries, "and they must have some connection with somebody to get vaccinated.”

According to the investigation, the first clandestine injection clinic took place June 1 at the home of a woman identified as Celine Gazal de Esses. Fifteen people got shots there including Gazal, her son and some employees and friends, according to the investigation overseen by chief prosecutor Javier Caraballo. Gazal's lawyer said she had already been vaccinated in the United States.

Denisse Vega, the owner of the...