Which vaccine would it be?

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

Pharmaceutical laboratories all over the world are working incessantly to discover the vaccine that would put an end to the coronavirus pandemic, but so far none have come up with the cure. There are tests including the use of cells from aborted babies but all have failed.

Nevertheless, the Philippine Department of Health late last week confirmed the arrival in the country of the Avigan tablets for the country’s COVID-19 patients. The Avigan tablets were donated by Japan but as it was for testing Japan provided only tablets good for 100 patients.

The use of Avigan has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for its clinical trial and by the Ethics Review Board of the DOH. The clinical trials were supposed to start yesterday but it was deferred for the completion of “legal documents” for its final use, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said

News report quoted a Japanese embassy statement saying that the delivery of Avigan tablets “was part of Japan’s emergency aid to countries severely affected by the COVID-19 disease.”

The Japan-made anti-flu drug Avigan has drawn interest from many countries for its potential to prevent viral replication, even as its effectiveness against the novel coronavirus is yet to be established, the embassy statement read, adding that the sharing of the Avigan tablet is “in response to the requests received from the international community.”

Japan has formed close cooperation with several countries, including the Philippines, to expand clinical research on Avigan as treatment for COVID-19. The recipient country knows the adverse effects of Avigan, the embassy said.

Russia is also ready to supply vaccine for COVID-19 once it becomes available, Russian Ambassador Igor Khovaev said last week.

Khovaev said Russia has submitted its proposals to the Philippine government regarding the vaccine, through the Department of Foreign Affairs and is waiting for a response.

He said they provided the Philippine government with three options: join its clinical trials, supply vaccines to the country or allow local production. “Our proposals are under consideration of our Philippine partners,” he said.

“We are ready to share our technologies,” the envoy said, adding they will comply with all domestic procedures and revealed that they “already have the vaccine. All necessary bureaucratic procedures in order to get an official administrative approval might be completed by mid-August, after that Russian facilities will be ready to launch production for this vaccine.”

The Philippines had already informed the Russian embassy of its acceptance.

Russian authorities said human trials for the vaccine had been finished and the results indicated that it is safe for use.

The potential vaccine was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, the same laboratory that developed an effective vaccine against Ebola and MERS-CoV.

It is rumored that China has also developed an anti-virus vaccine but there are misgivings about news coming out from that country and many object to the use of China-made vaccine although President Duterte is inclined to avail of a Chinese made vaccine.

Although in some western countries present remedies may provide comfort and alleviate symptoms of mild COVID-19, there are no medicines that have been shown to prevent or cure the disease. The World Health Organization has not recommended any vaccine and had even cautioned medication with any medicines, including antibiotics, as a prevention or cure for COVID-19. However, there are several ongoing clinical trials of both western and traditional medicines.

Every case is exceptional. There are doctors who have resorted to traditional and home medicines. Many recovered, others did not.

While we appreciate the help of Japan and Russia even in the experimental stage, we are not certain they would work. We hope and pray they would.

To the suffering masses, any vaccine that can put an end to the pandemic is welcome. There can be no scruples about it. When people see their loved ones die or their business collapsed or their plans jettisoned because of the virus, they would accept it believing that the government and the doctors would not intentionally use the vaccine without a certain degree of safety and effectiveness.

The only present recourse is to prevent the spread of the disease. Despite the seeming seesaw approaches of our authorities, there is little humanly possible in the horizon.