The national government presented earlier the so-called vaccination road map which prioritizes health workers in the list of those to be vaccinated followed by senior citizens, the indigent people then the police and the military.
This roadmap was presented to the president early last month by NIATF and vaccine czar, Gen. Carlito Galvez and was approved with a little variant in terms of order with 4Ps beneficiaries among the first and a blanket assurance that all Filipinos will be inoculated.
Yet, a month later, lo and behold, the president himself put the word out that cabinet members and the military were already vaccinated with a vaccine that has yet to be approved by the Food and Drug Authority (FDA).
‘Pasaway’ is the least you can call the president who disregarded all protocols, and worse, bragged about it as if taunting the law that he can get away with murder anyway.
FDA Director-General Eric Domingo was caught by surprise with that announcement since there has been no record of any vaccine that has been authorized for use in the country, not even for emergency use.
Of course, by now we know that it’s the Chinese-made “Sinopharm” vaccine that was used to inoculate our soldiers and officials. To hell with the indigent that they made a big show of being on the priority list.
We have heard of US-made Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that have a higher efficacy rate at 95 percent but unfortunately, negotiations to secure those vaccines went down the drain after the boo-boo of our Department of Health.
So what is this Sinopharm vaccine that has overtaken the earlier rolled-out Sinovac from China as well?
Clinical trials for the Sinopharm vaccine is being undertaken in 10 countries outside of China. In a news report, some 100,000 volunteers in the United Arab Emirates have been vaccinated and according to claims, this vaccine has an 86 percent efficacy.
However, the same vaccine trials have been suspended in Peru because of an “adverse event” that happened to a volunteer and the alleged lack of transparency in its data despite claims that the company has vaccinated about a million people already.
For some reason, the Sinopharm vaccine got into the country without the knowledge of health authorities but was apparently ordered by the president himself, as admitted by Army Chief, Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana.
This too, was confirmed by Presidential Security Group Commander Jess Durante who said that the president’s PSG was among the first to be inoculated so that these security men are not going to be a “threat to the president’s health and safety.”
What is laughable about it was the immediate denial of presidential spokesperson, Harry Roque who said that if indeed the military men got vaccinated ahead, “it must have been the decision of the commanders and soldiers.”
After verifying it was true that the president ordered it so, Roque changed his tune, as he had for the nth time to justify the order. Roque must have thickened his skin to a million times to afford becoming this government’s laughingstock in the so many faux pas he has made to tone down his boss’ ineptitude.
Well, the FDA can wash their hands of this incident since they were not made aware of this secret vaccination of officials and troops and if ever there is going to be any adverse event as what had happened in other countries using Sinopharm, then they can blame no one other than their commander-in-chief.
Meanwhile, the president also raised hell against the US by threatening to cancel the Visiting Forces Agreement, which he agreed to extend by six months just last month, if the American government fails to deliver a minimum of 20 million vaccines. Ah, who is he threatening?
It’s as if it was the US’ fault that we failed to secure an agreement to purchase the vaccines which Singapore and Indonesia have done, when the truth is, it was his Health Secretary Francisco Duque who made a mess of things that left us holding an empty bag instead of the promised 10 million Pfizer vaccines.
Back here at home, let’s give credit where it’s due and I mean to both the Bacolod City and Negros Occidental governments for trying to secure funds now to purchase vaccines for its constituents.
Mayor Bing Leonardia even created a vaccination team called “Covac” that will oversee the acquisition and distribution of the vaccines. Of course, it is composed by the same people that are either in the local council, the IATF or the EOC. But Covac does sound better and I hope they will really play a major role in ensuring that no one is left behind in their vaccination program.
In the province meanwhile, it’s less complicated with few people leading the way in negotiating for their own vaccines. And though more heads are sometimes better, in cases like this, a few decisive heads will always be ahead of the game.*