Latvian Health Minister survives no-confidence vote

Daniels Pavļuts, the Latvian Minister of Health, remained in office after a no-confidence vote in the Saeima this week.
The vote initiated by the Union of Greens and Farmers took place on Thursday, September 16. In the 100-seat Latvian parliament, 34 legislators voted for the removal of the politician from the liberal party union For Development/For! Meanwhile, 50 other MPs supported Pavļuts to continue in the position, which has not been made easy by the Covid-19 pandemic and the slow progress of the vaccination campaign.
In the debate ahead of the vote, opposition legislator Didzis Šmits said that it was impossible to reduce the spread of Covid-19 without the trust of the society. The Latvian Health Inspection has found that young people have been vaccinated with the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine a short time before it was registered for underage vaccination. Šmits called the mistake «inhumane» and «beyond reason».
Read also: BNN ANALYSES | Lithuania’s surge in new Covid-19 cases brings mortality to one of EU’s highest
The parliamentary secretary of the Latvian Ministry of Health, Ilmārs Dūrītis, argued that two thirds of the teenagers vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine in the respective period of time had been near the age of 18. Some parents of the adolescents had insisted on vaccinating them with this medication and in general, the vaccinated teenagers had not experienced serious vaccination side-effects apart from fever it some cases, Dūrītis explained.
Despite the criticism on this issue, strong words about the mass Covid-19 testing in schools, low vaccination rate in Latvia and even claims of being a liar convenient to prime minister Krišjānis Kariņš, Pavļuts stayed in office.