The best prize for anti-COVID-19 jab

It is indeed welcome initiatives by certain local government units (LGUs) to come up with creative ways to encourage their respective constituents to get themselves inoculated with vaccines to fight off the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. In Brgy. Sucat in Muntinlupa City, barangay officials issued raffle tickets with a prize of 25 kilos of rice to residents who get an anti-COVID jab. In San Luis town in Pampanga, a cow is raffled off to residents who received at least one dose of any anti-COVID vaccine shot.

Neophyte House deputy speaker Camille Villar of Las Piñas City topped all other incentive schemes with an offer of house and lot as top prize in a raffle to any of her registered constituents who get anti-COVID jab. Of course, the prize would come from their family’s real estate business empire that include Camella Homes, named after the Congresswoman by her parents, erstwhile Senate president Manuel Villar Jr. and Senator Cynthia.

This initiative of the Congresswoman obviously got the backing of her brother, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark Villar who is one of the members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID). As one of the designated “czars” of the anti-COVID responses of the government, the DPWH Secretary handles the construction and putting up of “isolation” facilities and modular hospitals for quarantine and treatment of COVID-19 infected people, respectively.

Nonetheless, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned again that the vaccines developed against COVID-19 cannot guarantee yet the complete eradication of the pandemic. The WHO created the COVAX Facility, supported by the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, entered into formal agreements with vaccine-makers to allocate supply of anti-COVID vaccines under “zero profit” arrangement to serve 20% of the most vulnerable sector of populations of poorer countries.

Given the unprecedented pandemic deaths it have caused across the globe, the WHO issued emergency use listing (EUL) that allowed the inoculation of anti-COVID vaccines even while all of them are still on phase 3 clinical trials. To date, the WHO granted EUL to at least three anti-COVID vaccines from the United States (US), namely, Pfizer-BioNTech; Janssen of Johnson & Johnson; and Moderna. Also getting the EUL are the AstraZeneca/Oxford United Kingdom (UK) and, Sinopharm by Beijing’s Bio-Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd.

The WHO authorized the mass production of these anti-COVID vaccines also in countries that went through the stringent screening from their respective Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) to secure emergency use authorization (EUA). Our own FDA has so far granted EUA to seven anti-COVID vaccines. In the order of approval, these are, namely: Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Sputnik-V, Novavax, Janssen, and Moderna.

With all these anti-COVID vaccines available, WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus blamed again many rich countries that have cornered the supply of anti-COVID vaccines so far produced. Worse, Dr. Tedros rued anew, these rich countries refused to share even their surplus with the poorer countries. A former Health Minister of Ethiopia, Dr. Tedros was speaking from experience from his own country and similarly situated poor countries trying to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

To date, over 70 million doses have reportedly been delivered to 126 countries around the world since the rollout of vaccines started in December last year. However, the unexpected surge of the various mutations of the COVID-19 starting from the UK, South Africa, Brazil and lately in India have had severe impact on the supply of vaccines. By the end of June, it is estimated there be will huge shortfalls of more than 190 million doses.

In a daily virtual presser at Malacañang last Monday, WHO Manila representative Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe conceded the shortage of supply of anti-COVID vaccines is really the problem, not the alleged hesitancy of many Filipinos to get vaccinated against this virus. Dr. Rabindra corrected the impressions created by the public opinion surveys indicating more than 30% of the Filipino population were still hesitant to undergo vaccination due to fears of the reported serious or adverse side effects of anti-COVID vaccines.

“Right now, we don’t see a lot of vaccine hesitancy in the Philippines. Actually, the issue is that the vaccine supply cannot meet the demand,” Dr. Rabindra cited. “What we are seeing now is that people eagerly ready to receive vaccines and it is in some situations, local governments unable to keep up with the demand. So it’s not actually an issue of vaccine hesitancy,” he pointed out.

In particular, the WHO official referred to the long queues of people when the US-made Pfizer vaccines were finally delivered in the Philippines through COVAX Facility. “There are many in some places preference for brand A or B of a vaccine, that should not be interpreted as vaccine hesitancy,” Dr. Rabindra stressed.

Dr. Rabindra disclosed two more anti-COVID vaccines, Sinovac of China and Sputnik-V of Gameleya, Russia will also get their EUL from the WHO any time soon.

The WHO official, however, leaves it to the Philippine government to implement vaccination scheme best suited to the situation in our country. Based on best practices across our LGUs, what then is the best way to convince people to get vaccinated against COVID-19?

This was after Malacañang instructed last week LGUs to implement “vaccine brand agnostic” that would not announce vaccine brands to avoid super spreader events for COVID-19 infection like large crowds and long hours of queues of people.

With or without incentive or prize, it is certainly better to get our selves vaccinated against this highly transmissible and deadly contagion at the soonest possible time. Rather than get infected, one could get whatever brand of anti-COVID vaccine that could at least reduce the risks of severe illness, or even death.

Still, the best prize is our dear life.