Duque: Doctors giving unauthorized COVID-19 jabs will lose license to practice
MANILA, Philippines — Doctors administering smuggled COVID-19 vaccines would risk losing their medical license as unregulated vaccination is illegal in the country, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III warned.
“We will investigate the illegal administration of unauthorized smuggled vaccines, specifically doctors and other medical professionals who administer them,” Duque said in a joint statement of the DOH and the Food and Drug Administration Thursday.
“We will have their medical licenses revoked. We doctors have an oath. Do no harm. In a pandemic, we need to be more circumspect,” he added.
The health chief’s statement came amid reports that some lawmakers meet up in “posh hotels for coffee” and receive vaccination in one of the rooms.
“I’m not buying the explanation that the doctors administering the shots are being pressured by lawmakers. Someone is peddling the service and it is unacceptable,” Duque said.
This development came after the government found itself in another vaccine-related controversy: when President Rodrigo Duterte himself revealed that some people in the government had already received COVID-19 jabs.
This was later on confirmed by the military and his security group, bewildering health officials and local regulators who have been warning the public against the dangers of unregulated vaccines and drugs. The news also enraged the public as the supposed inoculation plan by the government should have prioritized health workers.
The law prohibits the manufacture, import, sale and distribution of unregistered vaccines and drugs. It, however, stops short of penalizing people who receive unauthorized inoculation.
The local FDA has not issued any emergency use authorization to any COVID-19 vaccine. Only Pfizer has so far submitted application for EUA of its vaccine candidate in the country and FDA Director General Enrique Domingo said the agency will make a decision on the matter “at the soonest possible time.”
He added the FDA and the DOH are coordinating with the Bureau of Customs to prevent the entry of unauthorized COVID-19 vaccines and other drugs in the Philippines.
AFP to probe vaccination of PSG personnel
The Armed Forces of the Philippines said it will conduct an investigation into the vaccination of Duterte’s security group with illegal COVID-19 vaccines.
“[AFP chief] General Gilbert Gapay has ordered the conduct of a thorough investigation on the factual circumstances surrounding this incident,” AFP spokesperson Major General Edgard Arevalo said Thursday.
AFP, however, maintained that Gapay was neither part of nor privy to the procurement, source and the administration of the vaccines to the PSG troopers.
Under the government’s prioritization scheme of vaccine recipients, healthcare workers will be the first to get COVID-19 inoculated. Uniformed personnel are fifth in the said list.
The FDA, Bureau of Customs, and the National Bureau of Investigation are also set to investigate the entry of smuggled COVID-19 vaccines into the country.
It remains unclear if these probes will actually lead to making the people involved in the unauthorized vaccination activities accountable.
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