BY AND KEITH CALAYAG
AMERICANA Modern biotechnology company is “accelerating” its delivery of vaccines against coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) to the Philippines, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said on Sunday.
Locsin tweeted that it was the Philippine ambassador to the United States, Jose Manuel Romualdez, who conveyed the “good news”.
“We will have a full range of vaccines from the least effective to the most available for everyone to choose from,” he said.
Locsin made it clear that no vaccine “will be mass-implanted unless the officer recommending it for mass implantation is seen to take it himself.”
“The only proof of the pudding is to eat it alone and no one in its place until we see the side effects of the pudding, if any,” he said.
Locsin recently criticized an Cabinet member, without naming him, for “dropping the ball” during government negotiations with Pfizer to supply the Philippines with a vaccine. Romualdez revealed that Locsin was referring to Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3º.
The country’s search for vaccines faced political complications after President Rodrigo Duterte warned it would force the end of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) if the United States does not provide at least 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to the Philippines.
“Kung hindi sila maka-delivery ng maski na lang ang ang minimum (If the USA does not deliver [at least 20 million vaccine doses]), they better leave. No vaccine, not staying here, ”said Duterte at a briefing with the Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases on Saturday.
The VFA, which allows US soldiers to carry out military exercises in the Philippines, should have been canceled in August, but Manila suspended its termination in June for six months amid “political and other developments in the region”.
In November, the government extended the suspension for another six months.
With the extensions, VFA’s termination will take effect 69 days after June 1, 2021.
Duterte also told the public not to believe reports that Washington was about to deliver Covid-19 vaccines to the Philippines.
“If you want to help, if America wants to help, you do it. Stop talking. What we need is the vaccine, not his wordy speeches, ”he said.
Unhappy
Senator Panfilo Lacson deplored on Sunday what he said was Duterte’s attempt to blackmail the United States into providing vaccines.
“It is, at the very least, regrettable. I think there could be a more diplomatic way, or at least a better way to ask a longtime ally to help us get vaccines for our people without looking like we are blackmailing our way, ”said Lacson in a text message. .
Senator Francis Pangilinan, for his part, said that Duterte should warn China against selling expensive and yet ineffective vaccines to the Philippines, rather than threatening the United States.
“Perhaps our citizens would be better off if he threatened China not to sell us more expensive, but less effective or substandard vaccines,” he said on Twitter.
Majority leader in the Senate, Juan Miguel Zubiri, believes that the president has threatened frustration, as neighboring countries have already secured the supply of vaccines from American biotechnology companies like Pfizer and Moderna.
The country has other options, citing India, which produced a vaccine that costs just P366 for two doses.
Gamaleya too
Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go revealed that the government was exploring all possible sources of vaccines.
He said that the Russian group Gamaleya is preparing to send 15 million to 20 million doses of its vaccine to the country in the first quarter of 2021.
AstraZeneca has also committed 2.6 million doses, with negotiations underway for another 20 million.
Last Saturday, Duterte said many Filipinos, including soldiers, had been vaccinated with the Chinese company Sinopharm’s vaccine, despite the fact that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved any vaccine for use in the country.
“Sabihin ko sa iyo, marami nagpa-injection here in Sinopharm (let me tell you, many have already been inoculated with Sinopharm),” he told FDA Director-General Eric Domingo during a briefing.
“Halos lahat ng sundalo naturukan na (Almost all soldiers were vaccinated) I have to be frank and tell the truth. I will not impose a lie. Marami nang nagpatusok (Many received the vaccine) ”, he added.
Also on Sunday, a health expert warned the public against vaccination amid Duterte’s claim that many Filipinos received injections of the Sinopharm vaccine.
Dr. Edsel Salvana, from the Department of Health’s technical advisory group, said unauthorized vaccinations are “very dangerous”.
Salvana noted in a briefing that an inoculated individual would have no way of determining whether the vaccine is genuine.
“If people are willing to break the law, to give [you] something like that, so they will not hesitate to give you water or something more harmful, ”he said.
Even registered vaccines, if not handled properly, can become useless, said Salvana. He noted that only two vaccines approved for emergency use abroad – Pfizer and Moderna – require very cold storage temperatures.
On Sunday, the country reported a daily count of Covid-19 cases of 883, the lowest in five months.
The total number of cases was 469,886, with the total number of survivors at 438,678 and the number of deaths at 9,109.
The Philippines ranked second in new coronavirus cases in Southeast Asia, behind Indonesia, at 706,837, according to Johns Hopkins University case tracker Covid-19.
Global infections have passed the 80 million mark, while the death toll has risen to 1.7 million.
WITH JOHN ERIC MENDOZA