Looming vaccination crisis

By Artchil B. Fernandez

 

Vaccination is the people’s most important defense against deadly diseases. During a pandemic, vaccination is the best way to protect the population from the rampaging plague. Vaccination gives people immunity from the viruses or micro-organisms.

Since Edward Jenner successfully developed the vaccine against smallpox in 1796, vaccination for more than 200 years has protected humanity from fatal diseases. Vaccines developed through scientific advancements in the 20^th century saved millions of lives – whooping cough (1914), diphtheria (1926), tetanus (1938), influenza (1945) mumps (1948), polio (1955), measles (1963), and rubella (1969).

Today, the world is desperate for another vaccine, a year after a lethal once-in-a-century pandemic hit the global community. The world was caught off-guard when severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and went on to devastate the rest of the world.

COVID-19 is now ravaging 219 countries and territories. Latest data from Johns Hopkins University, which tracks the pandemic, reveal that there are now 100,986,160 cases of COVID-19 globally with 2,177,611 deaths. The US remains number one in terms of cases and deaths – 25,599,961 and 429,195 respectively.

To recover from the devastation of COVID-19 pandemic, the world needs to vaccinate the global population. The urgency to create a vaccine against COVID-19 forced the global scientific community to hasten its development after the genetic sequence of the virus was published on January 11, 2020. It also prompted a race among nations, with China and Russia viewing it as a matter of national pride. Despite absence of phase-3 clinical trial, China approved the CanSino vaccine in June 2020 while Russia announced its approval of Sputnik V vaccine in August 2020.

But real breakthrough in vaccine development happened on November 20, 2020 when Pfizer in partnership with BioNTech announced that its vaccine is 95% safe and effective after finishing phase-3 clinical trial involving 43,500 participants in six countries. Unlike the Chinese and Russian vaccines whose data remained unshared with the rest of scientific community, data on Pfizer vaccine was unblinded and reviewed by an independent scientific board.

On December 2, 2020, the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) gave the Pfizer vaccine emergency use authorization (EUA) and seven days later the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) followed.

With the advent of vaccines, vaccination has begun in the US, Canada, Europe and some parts of Asia at the end of 2020. Indonesia and Singapore started their roll out of the vaccine in the first week of January, 2021 and this week Burma (Myanmar) and Nepal started vaccinating their health workers. Israel has already vaccinated 29% of its population and targets that by March all Israelis got their shots.

The Philippines, on the other hand, is in limbo in terms of vaccination. The country is supposed to get 10 million doses of Pfizer vaccine in January 2021 but Du30’s favorite Health Secretary Duque torpedoed the deal by refusing to submit a confidentiality agreement that would have allowed the transaction to push through. As a result, Filipinos can only look with envy as their neighbors have started receiving COVID-19 vaccines.

Not only vaccination is NOT happening among Filipinos anytime soon, the country is facing a looming vaccination crisis. The crisis is brought about by the ineptness and incompetence of Du30 and his administration.

For vaccination to succeed, a skeptical public must be convinced to receive the vaccine. The latest Pulse Asia survey (November 23 – December 2, 2020) shows that nearly half (47%) of Filipinos do not want to be vaccinated. Only 32% want to be vaccinated and 21% are undecided. This negative attitude of Filipinos toward vaccination was cultivated by the Du30 administration through the Dengvaxia controversy it whipped up to damage the previous administration. Now, the Du30 administration is reaping what it sowed.

Du30 also fueled Filipinos’ suspicion of vaccines when he acted as salesman of China-made vaccines. His aggressive push of made-in-China vaccines only heightened Filipinos distrust of vaccines. Sinovac vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech was found to be only 50.4% effective yet the government ordered 25 million doses. Survey on vaccination reveals that safety concern is a factor considered by 84% of Filipinos in taking a vaccine. Du30 is sabotaging his administration’s vaccination program with his adamant insistence on questionable China vaccines.

If most Filipinos reject the China-made vaccines not only due to safety and efficacy concerns but also as a rebuff to the country that stole Philippine territory, the 25 million doses ordered will go to waste, a blatant misuse of public funds. Sinovac applied for EUA in the country but Philippine FDA said the company did not submit data on its phase-3 clinical trial. Yet the government plans to roll-out the China-vaccine next month. This will only drive the vast majority of Filipinos to reject vaccines.

In addition to non-acceptance of China-vaccines, vaccination of 110 million Filipinos entails massive mobilization of resources – personnel and logistics. So far, the national government failed to unveil its vaccination program. Du30 spends his weekly night show reading the names of minor government functionaries who committed corruption instead of discussing details of his vaccination program. Only some local government units (LGUs) have comprehensive vaccination plan.

Lack of comprehensive national vaccination program and pushing for dubious China-made vaccines are perfect ingredients of an impending vaccination crisis.