Secure borders 'like bloodhounds' vs entry of fake COVID-19 jabs, authorities told
MANILA, Philippines — Stricter measures to foil attempts of smuggling coronavirus vaccines into the country's borders were sought by a senator on Wednesday, stressing its "grave concern" on public safety and health.
Senator Risa Hontiveros' call to the customs bureau and the police came after developments in Beijing, where authorities there confiscated 3,000 doses of fake COVID-19 jabs meant to be sold abroad.
"Our own authorities need to bust any plan to bring those fake vaccines onto our shores," she said in a statement. "Anyone willing to put other people in danger for quick profit should be apprehended and put behind bars."
The lawmaker also warned against those resorting to supposedly black markets for unregulated jabs, an operation that has thrived over the course of the health crisis as detailed in a Washington Post report.
Apart from smuggling, the country's law on counterfeit drugs also prohibits the manufacture, import, sale and distribute unauthorized vaccines and drugs. It, however, does not penalize people who receive shots of unregistered vaccines.
"I expect the heads of law enforcement and the National Task Force to be on top of this," Hontiveros said. "Siguraduhin sanang walang inside jobs o under-the-table deals sa mga ahensiyang nagbabantay sa ating borders."
(Let us make sure that there are no inside jobs or under-the-table deals within government agencies manning our borders.)
The issue of illegal vaccination in the Philippines took spotlight significantly after President Rodrigo Duterte revealed that his security group had been inoculated with the Chinese-made Sinopharm as early as September 2020.
Such a move had infuriated the public as local regulators at the time have not yet approved any vaccines for emergency use, and the administration officials sought to justify the blatant disregard for the law.
It remains unclear as to how the Sinopharm doses made its way to the country. The customs bureau had said that it would investigate if some items were misdeclared and had made its way inside borders, but no progress has been reported more than a month since the controversy.
Medical experts have since warned of the repercussions that the incident could pose on government's vaccination efforts, already facing much doubts with 47% unwilling to take the jabs even before the inoculation mess surfaced.
Food and Drug Administration officials have continued the agency's probe on the matter, but its chief recently said Duterte's security have been unresponsive to queries.
"Walang awtorisadong bakuna ang mabibili sa merkado," Hontiveros said. "Hindi ito rehistrado, ligtas, walang tiyak na bisa at maaring peke pa. Engaging in the black market is not only illegal, it is dangerous."
(There is no authorized vaccine yet out in the market. These are unregistered, unsafe and unsure if effective and fake.)
To date, only Pfizer and AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccines have secured approval for emergency use from the FDA, but supplies have yet to arrive, with the administration saying its delivery is seen by this month.
The national government has so far secured two official deals for COVID-19 vaccine supplies in the Philippines, one with Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac and another with the Serum Institute of India.
Watch this space for bite-sized developments on the vaccines in the Philippines. (Main image by Markus Spiske via Unsplash)
Health Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire says the general population may now get their second booster jab.
"We're just waiting for the release of implementing guidelines, then we'll start rolling out our second booster for the general population," she says. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
Amid questions on vaccines being administered, the Department of Health assures the public all doses are safe and effective as the “process of extending shelf life goes through thorough stability studies.”
“The government ensures that every vaccine that is injected with an extended shelf life has gone through studies, and is still safe and effective against COVID-19,” it adds.
Government must increase vaccination capacity across the Philippines in anticipation of a surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant of the corona virus, Sen. Risa Hontiveros says.
She says local government units and the private sector can work together to put up more vaccination centers and deploy more vaccination teams to get more people inoculated against COVID-19.
"The active COVID cases have nearly doubled in three days. The positivity rate is almost four times the ceiling set by the World Health Organization. Huwag na nating hintayin na sobrang lumala pa ang sitwasyon bago tayo gumawa ng paraan para mapabilis ang ating pagbabakuna."
FDA chief Eric Domingo says that its agency has given emergency approval for the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
The United States immunized around 900,000 children aged five-to-11 against Covid in the first week the Pfizer vaccine was authorized for them, a White House official says Wednesday.
Roughly 700,000 more have made appointments at pharmacies, White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zients tells reporters.
"The program is just getting up to full strength," he says, adding most of the shots were given in the last couple of days alone. — AFP
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