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While South Africa is still waiting for the launch of the vaccination campaign, Johann Rupert, the country’s second wealthiest man and president of Richemont, went to Switzerland to be vaccinated in a clinic operated by his group. Accused of favouritism, the affair triggered many debates.
On Thursday 21 January, the Tages-Anzeiger unveiled the vaccination of South African billionaire Johann Rupert, president and majority shareholder of the luxury group Richemont. On January 12 in Thurgau, Rupert was injected with a dose of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
According to the Swiss daily newspaper, Rupert’s first attempt to receive the vaccine at a clinic in Lucerne failed, but no details were given.
The controversy is justified by several factors: First of all, South Africa was still waiting for the vaccination campaign at that time, as was the canton in which the businessman was vaccinated. It should be noted that the latter is not a resident of the canton and that he was domiciled in Satigny (Geneva) and would have arrived on Swiss territory by private jet from South Africa around Christmas.
The vaccination took place in a clinic of the Hirslanden Group, in which Rupert holds shares through a network of companies. The Hirslanden Group is the largest private hospital group in Switzerland with 17 clinics in 11 cantons. In 2007, Hirslanden was taken over by the South African Mediclinic Group, 45% of which is owned by Johann Rupert’s investment fund Remgro.
The first phase of vaccination is subject to certain eligibility conditions, in particular an age requirement that made patients over 75 years of age the priority persons for vaccination. Johann Rupert is only 70 years old.
However, according to a Hirslanden spokesman who spoke to the Swiss daily newspaper, this was a “test” vaccination as part of a program that tested the complex handling of the vaccine. The billionaire was therefore part of a test group of 12 patients.
Rupert was then eligible for the vaccine in this test program because of his health condition and the various chronic diseases that made him a person at risk at the time. He was therefore considered a priority, in accordance with the guidelines of the Federal Office of Public Health.
A spokesperson for Richemont at the AFP also pointed out that Rupert has been a “taxpayer in Switzerland for more than 30 years” and thus “eligible” for the vaccine.
Faced with the increase in debate, the businessman said: “It is important for me to set an example for all the employees of my company”.
“My message is: it is only with vaccinations that we can find a way out of this crisis“, he continued.
Moreover, in December, the Richemont group had demanded that all its senior managers be vaccinated as soon as possible in order to encourage its employees to do the same.
However, these arguments did not meet with unanimous approval, and the affair continues to provoke a lot of anger, both in South Africa and in Switzerland.
“It is an affront to the people of Thurgau who have been waiting for weeks for a vaccination“, rebelled local socialist politician Nina Schläfli in a tweet, “it is inconceivable that a billionaire would fly in and pass in front of everyone.
The South African media accuse Johann Rupert of “jumping the queue“, while the country has still not launched its vaccination campaign and the second wave of the virus has considerably increased the number of deaths.
Johann Rupert is not the first, and probably not the last, to have benefited “before the others” from this vaccination. The chief physician of the Basel children’s hospital had also benefited from a first dose of the vaccine, even though he does not work on the front lines of the fight against the virus. In addition, Swiss family doctors said that more than one patient had used his connections to be among those who should be vaccinated as a matter of priority.
Josef Wilder, president of the Zurich Society of Physicians, said that this inhuman and selfish behaviour on the part of people with a lot of influence was not going to stop and would even increase.
“This is the way we humans are. When a commodity becomes scarce, we fight for it, as we have seen with toilet paper“, he said.
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While South Africa is still waiting for the launch of the vaccination campaign, Johann Rupert, the country’s second wealthiest man and president of Richemont, went to Switzerland to be vaccinated in a clinic operated by his group. Accused of favouritism, the affair triggered many debates.
On Thursday 21 January, the Tages-Anzeiger unveiled the vaccination of South African billionaire Johann Rupert, president and majority shareholder of the luxury group Richemont. On January 12 in Thurgau, Rupert was injected with a dose of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
According to the Swiss daily newspaper, Rupert’s first attempt to receive the vaccine at a clinic in Lucerne failed, but no details were given.
The controversy is justified by several factors: First of all, South Africa was still waiting for the vaccination campaign at that time, as was the canton in which the businessman was vaccinated. It should be noted that the latter is not a resident of the canton and that he was domiciled in Satigny (Geneva) and would have arrived on Swiss territory by private jet from South Africa around Christmas.
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While South Africa is still waiting for the launch of the vaccination campaign, Johann Rupert, the country’s second wealthiest man and president of Richemont, went to Switzerland to be vaccinated in a clinic operated by his group. Accused of favouritism, the affair triggered many debates.
On Thursday 21 January, the Tages-Anzeiger unveiled the vaccination of South African billionaire Johann Rupert, president and majority shareholder of the luxury group Richemont. On January 12 in Thurgau, Rupert was injected with a dose of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
According to the Swiss daily newspaper, Rupert’s first attempt to receive the vaccine at a clinic in Lucerne failed, but no details were given.
The controversy is justified by several factors: First of all, South Africa was still waiting for the vaccination campaign at that time, as was the canton in which the businessman was vaccinated. It should be noted that the latter is not a resident of the canton and that he was domiciled in Satigny (Geneva) and would have arrived on Swiss territory by private jet from South Africa around Christmas.
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