Still disorganized

Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and even strife-torn Myanmar have started their COVID-19 vaccination programs.

As for us, the rollout of the Pfizer shots touted for mid-February, in time for the start of the (hopefully better) Year of the Ox, has been moved tentatively to early March.

For this we have the Dengvaxia controversy to thank. The hysteria over deaths allegedly linked to the dengue vaccine (not backed by science, according to vaccine proponents) led to a plunge in immunizations for polio (and its reemergence in our country) as well as measles.

A report this week said the arrival of Western vaccines under the COVAX Facility of the World Health Organization (WHO) has been delayed by concerns expressed by the vaccine makers that they could face lawsuits, like Dengvaxia maker Sanofi Pasteur, and be compelled to pay indemnity in case of adverse reactions to their jabs.

Certain local government units such as Makati are now issuing documents to be signed by those willing to be vaccinated, waiving such lawsuits. Some LGUs such as Marikina have also started setting aside funds to indemnify those who suffer adverse reactions to the vaccines.

Yesterday President Duterte certified as urgent a bill setting up a national indemnity fund. Considering the process of legislation, the LGU initiative is faster. But not all LGUs have the resources for such a fund, so a national law may still be needed.

Will the vaccine delivery have to wait until such a measure is passed? By that time, we could be at the end of the long global line for the availability of the Western vaccines.

All that would be left would be the vaccines made in China. But how many Filipinos would accept them? Also, won’t Chinese firms Sinovac and Sinopharm also want similar waivers on lawsuits from the Philippines?

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Even the Feb. 23 arrival of the 500,000 Sinovac jabs donated by Beijing, announced by Malacañang, is uncertain at this point.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says only vaccines it has approved either for emergency or compassionate use can be brought into the country.

FDA chief Eric Domingo told us on “The Chiefs” last Tuesday that evaluators were having difficulty with Sinovac’s application for emergency use authorization for its CoronaVac jab, because of widely varying efficacy results reported in different countries. CoronaVac has not yet been approved by any stringent regulatory authority (SRA) in the world – something that could make the issuance of an EUA faster, as in the case of the Pfizer and Moderna jabs.

Pfizer and Moderna, however, are seeking additional documentation before shipping their vaccines to the Philippines, according to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.

The documents have been submitted, Vergeire told us on The Chiefs also last Tuesday. She did not specify the nature of the documents, but it could be linked to the concerns about lawsuits and indemnification.

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Big Pharma isn’t the only one worried about lawsuits in the Philippines arising from vaccines. FDA officials and vaccine evaluators, Domingo admitted to us, are also worried about lawsuits as in the Dengvaxia case.

The evaluators are taking extreme care in their assessment of the suitability of any vaccine for widespread use in the Philippines.

Their job is made easier in the case of the vaccines with SRA approval, including the AstraZeneca jab, which now also has the WHO’s blessings.

Their problem is the Sinovac shot. As for the jabs from Sinopharm, the pharmaceutical firm of the Chinese government, the FDA has granted compassionate use approval for a one-time importation of 10,000 doses by the children of a greater God in the Duterte administration: members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) and their family members.

Compassionate use authorization for drugs is granted usually under exceptional and life-threatening circumstances. This authorization can allow a person in our country, for example, to import cannabidiol, an ingredient in marijuana, for use by those afflicted with cancer or epilepsy.

What’s the extraordinary affliction of the anak ng Diyos in the PSG, which will warrant their getting vaccines ahead of the health frontliners? Domingo explained that new rules issued last year allowed compassionate use authorization for COVID vaccines, to fast-track their procurement.

Domingo emphasizes that the compassionate use authorization does not stop the probe of the “smuggling” (as described by both the FDA and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana) of the Sinopharm jabs that the PSG claims to have self-administered to several of its members way back in September last year.

Despite requests for details from the FDA about the clandestine vaccination, the PSG and Armed Forces of the Philippines continue to stonewall, Domingo told us.

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With health authorities barred from determining if the Sinopharm vaccine works or if it has serious side effects, how can the PSG be sure that its members are immunized and cannot infect their principal?

Protecting the President is supposed to be the objective of putting PSG members at the top of the vaccination line in the country. Not knowing whether the jabs work, however, defeats that purpose.

If protecting President Duterte from infection is the main objective, the simplest way is to have him vaccinated ahead of all of us.

I don’t think anyone will begrudge the President of the republic if he gets the second Pfizer jab under the COVAX Facility. (The first shot has been committed to Dr. Jonas del Rosario, Philippine General Hospital spokesman, who survived COVID but lost his parents to the disease.)

Around the world, heads of government have been setting the example in overcoming vaccine hesitancy, by becoming among the first to get their COVID shots, and in public.

Duterte might even get what his aides say is his preferred vaccine – anything made in China – if the 500,000 Sinovac jabs donated by Beijing will be the first to arrive in the Philippines.

If Duterte is already vaccinated, then there’s no reason for the PSG and their family members to jump the line. Not even the health professionals of PGH and the other COVID referral centers, who eat infection risks for breakfast, have vaccination privilege extended to their families.

This vaccination program, however, is turning into a microcosm of our society: disorganized, and with personal connections defining entitlements.