Carla Vizzotti (born June 1, 1972) is an Argentine physician specializing in vaccine-preventable diseases. She served as Secretary of Health Access and Deputy Minister of Health in Argentina’s Ministry of Health, under Minister Ginés González García, until February 2021. She has been Minister of Health since February 20, 2021, following the resignation of González García.
Education and career
Vizzotti was born on June 1, 1972, in Buenos Aires, the daughter of a gastroenterologist. She studied medicine at the Universidad del Salvador, graduating in 1997. She specialized in internal medicine at the University of Buenos Aires. She is the founder and president of the Argentine Society of Vaccinology and Epidemiology (SAVE), and she has also worked at Fundación Huésped, an NGO created in response to HIV/AIDS.
From 2007 to 2016, during the successive governments of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, she led the National Directorate for the Control of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (DINACEI) within the Ministry of Health. During her tenure, she led the National Immunization Plan and oversaw the expansion of the existing vaccination schedule to include 19 free and mandatory vaccines.
Secretariat of Health Access
Vizzotti presents the government’s daily COVID-19 report in June 2020.
On December 19, 2019, Vizzotti was appointed head of the newly established Secretariat of Health Access by Health Minister Ginés González García, as part of the administration of newly elected President Alberto Fernández.
In 2020, Vizzotti became one of the most visible public officials in the government’s response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. She was tasked with delivering the government’s daily morning reports on COVID-19 statistics.
In December 2020, Vizzotti led the Argentine delegation that traveled to Russia to oversee the transport of 300,000 doses of the Gam-COVID-Vac vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology to Argentina.
Minister of Health
Ginés González García resigned as Minister of Health on February 19, 2021, after journalist Horacio Verbitsky revealed that he and others had received preferential access to the COVID-19 vaccine from González García, in a scandal known as the “VIP Vaccination” (Vacunatorio VIP). As Deputy Minister of Health, Vizzotti was promoted as the natural successor to González García.
She was appointed to the position the next day, on February 20, 2021. Sandra Marcela Tirado was appointed Secretary of Health Access in Vizzotti’s place.
On February 26, 2021, she tested positive for COVID-19 and entered voluntary isolation.