JUST as people are dying in the Philippines, and lockdowns continue to be enforced in many parts of the country, life-saving vaccines are in danger of expiring in storage areas of the Department of Health.
“Supply of about 1.5 million AstraZeneca doses scheduled to expire by June 30, 2021. The doses were part of the recent shipment of 2 million doses from the World Health Organization-led COVAX global facility, which arrived in the Philippines in May,” Rappler reported.
As of May 10, the Philippines has 56,752 active COVID-19 cases, with 18,620 deaths.
Since the vaccination drive was launched on March 1, only about 1.79% of the country’s population have received the first of two doses of the vaccine., and just 0.41% of the population have been fully vaccinated as of May 8.
With this painfully slow and inefficient vaccination drive in most parts of the country, there have been calls for the Duterte administration to allow the private sector to distribute AstraZeneca vaccines expiring in June to avoid wasting the scarce supply of shots.
“We are still at 40-60 [thousand] vaccination[s] per day. At this rate we can never finish the AstraZeneca 1.5 [million] stocks that will expire in June,” Dr. Tony Leachon, a former adviser to the coronavirus National Task Force, said.
“Sayang…super sayang (What a waste)!”, he added.
On a more optimistic note, Rappler reported that the Philippines has [finally] begun administering COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech to qualified recipients on Wednesday, May 12, two days after the shipment supplied by the global vaccine sharing alliance COVAX facility arrived in the Philippines. San Juan and Makati were among the first local government units to kick off vaccinations using Pfizer shots.
Pfizer was the first to be given authorization for emergency use in the Philippines back in January. The arrival on Monday, May 10 of 193,050 Pfizer doses in the country followed months of delay, Rappler reported.
“Filipinos initially expected the arrival of 117,000 Pfizer doses in February, but the lack of an indemnification law, among other things, hampered the country’s access to the vaccine brand,” the report stated.
As of May 14, the Philippines would have already signed a deal that will secure 40 million doses of Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for the country, after months of discussions on indemnity issues prolonged negotiations for access to the shots, according to Rappler.
Once this Pfizer deal has been finalized and made executory, this will become the Philippine government’s largest COVID-19 vaccine procurement, so far. The reporting said this is expected to be funded by loans from international financial institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
“This is followed by purchase deals with the Serum Institute of India for 30 million Novavax vaccine doses, 25 million Sinovac doses, 20 million Moderna and Gamaleya doses, 17 million AstraZeneca doses, and up to 10 million Johnson and Johnson (J&J) vaccine doses”, Rappler chronicled.
Meanwhile, here in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday, May 10, has approved Pfizer and BioNTech’s request to allow their COVID-19 vaccine to be given to kids ages 12 to 15 on an emergency use basis. The two-dose Pfizer vaccine has already been authorized earlier for use in people 16 and older.
“The companies said in late March that the vaccine was found to be 100% effective in a clinical trial of more than 2,000 adolescents. They also said the vaccine elicited a “robust” antibody response in the children, exceeding those in an earlier trial of older teens and young adults. Side effects were generally consistent with those seen in adults, they added,” CNBC reported.
President Joe Biden hailed this development as “one more giant step in our fight against the pandemic,” and urged parents to get their children vaccinated.
Biden also made a deal with Uber and Lyft to give people free rides to vaccination centers up to July 4 in an effort to overcome any obstacles that may stop people from getting the shots necessary for the nation to attain herd immunity.
As of Tuesday, May 11, CNBC reported that “more than 150 million Americans age 18 and older have received at least one dose, according to data compiled by the CDC. Roughly 115 million American adults are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Thursday, May 13 that fully vaccinated people could start taking off their masks indoors two weeks after their final required shot. This guideline is based on the “sharp decline in coronavirus cases and an expansion of vaccine eligibility to everyone 12 and older”, the New York Times reported.
However, the CDC noted that even fully vaccinated people are still told to cover their faces when visiting health care facilities, while flying or taking public transit, and in congregate settings such as homeless shelters, as well as prisons or jails.
To be clear, the Times said: “The C.D.C. advice does not override mask orders issued by states, counties or cities. But in the hours after the new policy was announced on Thursday, officials in some parts of the country began to adjust their rules to align with federal guidance. Others had yet to weigh in publicly, and some said they were keeping their rules in place while they reviewed the C.D.C.’s suggestions.”
The bottom line is: We all have to do our share to make sure we defeat our invisible enemy. As we await clearer guidelines, we have to exercise our discernment and judicious thinking in determining when and where there is a need to wear a mask so that those who are not yet vaccinated will not catch the virus through us, and that happens in crowded places and indoors.
Moreover, we need to speak the truth to those who are still daunted by vaccinations — whether it be because of fear of needles, side effects, or because of the lies being spread around by those who do not believe in science.
As of 6 a.m. EDT May 13, about 35.8% of the country’s population have been vaccinated. We have more work to do.
The Kaiser Family Foundation reported that about 13% of adults say they definitely won’t get a vaccine while 21% say they will “wait and see” or will get one only if required.
Kababayans in the Philippines who truly value their lives and believe in science will trade places with any American for this chance to have life-saving vaccines.
We are all in this together. Let us soldier on and get vaxxed, wear our masks when necessary, and onward we will go closer to defeating COVID-19 TOGETHER, and start rebuilding our lives, our nation, and the global community.
* * *
The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
* * *
Gel Santos Relos has been in news, talk, public service and educational broadcasting since 1989 with ABS-CBN and is now serving the Filipino audience using different platforms, including digital broadcasting, and print, and is working on a new public service program for the community. You may contact her through email at [email protected], or send her a message via Facebook at Facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos.
