EDITORIAL: MANILA- Transparent, orderly procurement
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Americans and Canadians began receiving the first shots of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine this week, days after mass inoculation got underway in the United Kingdom. In Southeast Asia, Singapore will be the first to begin inoculation, with the Pfizer vaccine to begin arriving at the end of this month and with migrant workers including Filipinos to get the shots for free together with Singapore citizens.
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The Pfizer vaccine is the first in the world to get regulatory approval from reputable agencies recognized by the World Health Organization. Expected to get a similar green light are the vaccines developed by US biotechnology firm Moderna and the UK’s AstraZeneca together with the University of Oxford.
In the Philippines, turbulence is brewing in the government’s vaccine procurement. This week the Senate, sitting as a whole, will conduct an inquiry into the vaccine procurement program amid questions raised on the apparent priority given by the government to vaccines from China. Public health advocate Anthony Leachon, who was eased out as adviser to the National Task Force Against COVID-19, said safety and efficacy should be the paramount considerations in vaccine procurement, as he pointed out that the Chinese vaccines are not subjected to peer review and have not yet been approved by any reputable drug regulating agency.
Yesterday, more questions were raised as Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. tweeted that “somebody dropped the ball” after he and Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez “got 10 million doses of Pfizer.” Locsin tweeted that the procurement was to be financed by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, and the vaccines were supposed to be shipped to Clark airport in Pampanga in January through Federal Express.
The government will have to be fully transparent if it wants Filipinos to trust vaccines whose vetting process is under a cloud of doubt. At the same time, the government must release clear guidelines and steps in the emergency use authorization for any COVID vaccine.
A vaccine is seen as the best hope for ending this deadly and economically devastating pandemic. The rollout of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine has been hailed as the beginning of the end of this public health crisis. But not all vaccines are created equal. With the speed called for in this emergency, the country must procure in an orderly, transparent manner COVID vaccines that are reliable, and whose use will not create another public health crisis.
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