The chosen one

By Artchil B. Fernandez

 

Vaccination has started in the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) at the end of last year. In the first month of 2021, vaccination began in many countries in Europe and even in Asia. Philippine’s neighbors Indonesia and Singapore rolled out the vaccine this week and Filipinos can only watch with envy.

In the Philippines, vaccination is still months away. This again is another evidence of how the Du30 administration is bungling on its job of managing the Covid-19 pandemic ravaging the nation.

January 2021, 10 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine made by Pfizer would have arrived in the Philippines revealed Sen. Panfilo Lacson last year. The arrangement was done in July 2020 in a negotiation between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., arranged by Philippine ambassador to the US Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez. But Health Secretary Francisco Duque dropped the ball, Lacson lamented, by failing to submit a confidentiality agreement that would have allowed the transaction to push through. The Philippine allocation eventually went to Singapore. The incompetence and ineptness of the Du30 administration is staggering.

Duque’s gross negligence and irresponsibility of dropping the ball cost Filipinos an early roll out of the vaccine. Now, it becomes clear why the Pfizer transaction was dropped. This week, the Du30 administration made known it has chosen the vaccine it prefers and wants to inject Filipinos with.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez announced this week that the government has decided to procure 25 million doses of vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech. He claimed the China vaccine is cheaper although he did not show the price of the vaccine. Public reaction to the announcement was mainly negative, with Filipinos questioning the government’s preference of the made-in-China vaccine.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque further inflamed public outrage on the bias of the current administration towards the China vaccine when he declared Filipinos should not be picky with the Covid-19 vaccines. “It is true that we all have the right to good health but we cannot afford to be picky because there are so many Filipinos who need to be injected,” Roque told the skeptical public. He also announced the only vaccine that will be available in the country from February to June is the Sinovac vaccine.

In his weekly night show this week, Du30 also pushed the China vaccine, even acting as the spokesperson if not sales agent of Chinese pharmaceutical companies. “The Chinese do not lack brains. The Chinese are bright,” Duterte claimed. “And they would not venture if it’s not sufficient — if it’s not safe, sure, and secure. Those three: It must be safe, sure, and secure. That is the guarantee,” an enthusiastic Du30 added behaving like a salesman vouching for the product he is promoting.

Filipinos are suspicious of the China-made vaccine – Du30’s chosen one, for it was developed under opaque circumstances. Data on China vaccine have not been shared to the scientific community for review. No independent scientific board reviewed the data on the vaccines and the Chinese pharmaceutical company did not apply for emergency use authorization (EUA) in countries with the most stringent Food and Drug Administration (FDAs) like the US, UK, Singapore, European Union, Canada, Japan and Australia.

Results of the Brazilian trial of the corona virus vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech show it was just 50.4 percent effective. Furthermore, the Office of Senator Sonny Angara reveals that the Sinovac vaccine is not cheap but among the most expensive. Price of Sinovac vaccine is 3,629.50 pesos while that of Pfizer which is 95 percent effective is 2,379 pesos. Sinovac is also at the center of a scandal involving bribery of regulators according to a Washington Post report.

Given the suspicious and dubious background of Sinovac and its product, this will only deepen Filipinos’ skepticism on vaccines.  Latest Pulse Asia survey (November 23 – December 2, 2020) shows that nearly half (47 percent) of Filipinos do not want to be vaccinated.  Only 32 percent want to be vaccinated and 21 percent are undecided.

The Du30 administration promoting the China-made vaccine with questionable background only heightens public anxiety on vaccines. The best way to convince Filipinos to be vaccinated is to give them vaccines with high efficacy, manufactured with transparency and developed following the highest and stringent scientific standard.

No local government unit has ordered the China-made vaccine, including Davao City. Almost all of them will get their vaccines from AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish company while some ordered from Pfizer or Moderna.

Shameless and unabashed promotion of the Sinovac vaccine once again demonstrates the fealty of the Du30 administration to China and the fakeness of its touted “independent” foreign policy. It plans to roll-out the Sinovac vaccine in February but the company has not even applied for EUA here. Will the Du30 twist the arm of Philippine FDA to force the acceptance of its chosen one despite lack of data on its development and its low efficacy? The FDA on the other hand has granted Pfizer UEA this week.

For the vaccination program to succeed, public acceptance is paramount. It is perplexing why the Du30 administration insist on using the China-vaccine which undermines its own vaccination program. If the public refuse to take the 25 million vaccines ordered from Sinovac, the vaccines will be useless. It is a profligate waste of people’s money.

To restore public confidence on vaccination, only vaccines that are safe with highest efficacy and made without cutting corners should be made publicly available.