Vax delay aimed at trust build up

CABINET MEMBERS SLIP

While the frontliners remain as the priority, the low efficacy rate of 50.4 percent of the Sinovac-developed CoronaVac during the trials conducted by Brazil on its health care workers makes the government wary about its distribution to their Philippine counterparts

Malacañang may have unwittingly let the cat out of the bag on Monday when members of President Rodrigo Duterte’s Cabinet admitted to buying time in the rollout of anti-Covid vaccines and the declaration of a more relaxed quarantine rule.

In explaining the Chief Executive’s difficulty in deciding to defer the shift from a general community quarantine (GCQ) to a modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) in several highly-urbanized areas, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles on Tuesday disclosed that Duterte is just asking for “little more time.”

That “little more time” was expounded by Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Secretary Salvador Panelo, who in his daily online program “Counterpoint”, called the delay in the arrival of the vaccines as “a good thing” as it gives the government time to encourage the people to accept and participate in the national vaccination program.

The government is having a tough time convincing the majority of the Filipinos to accept the vaccines it plans to import from China.

A Pulse Asia survey conducted between 23 November and 2 December also found that only 32 percent of 2,400 respondents would receive a Covid-19 vaccine when it is rolled out.

Safety concerns, however, were raised by the 47 percent who said they would refuse the vials. The undecided lot was pegged at 21 percent.

Only three companies — Pfizer-BioNTech (US and Germany), AstraZeneca (United Kingdom), and Sinovac (China) — have received emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

It is Sinovac, however, which is likely to be rolled out first to the Philippine population although the government on Monday said it is not likely to be distributed to the frontline health workers who need the vaccines the most.

While the frontliners remain as the priority, the low efficacy rate of 50.4 percent of the Sinovac-developed CoronaVac during the trials conducted by Brazil on its health care workers make the government wary about its distribution to their Philippine counterparts.

Sinovac jabs will be inoculated on the “economic frontliners”, instead. These, Malacañang said, are the soldiers, policemen and other workers who help keep the economy moving.

Nograles said the MGCQ shift proposed by the President’s economic managers to resuscitate money movement was a “difficult decision” to make.

“He (Duterte) was vocal about that because you have to balance health needs and economic needs,” Nograles said in a televised briefing.

“The President is just asking for a little more time because again, the step-by-step process — for him – is vaccination rollout first before MGCQ. Let’s wait and let’s see a successful rollout first,” he added.

The economic team was mum on its next move after the President’s rejection of the

MGCQ push.

The official added that the government would look for other ways to “safely reopen the economy” even if Metro Manila, which accounts for 60 percent of the country’s GDP, remains under general community quarantine (GCQ) or the third strictest lockdown classification.

“All members of the Cabinet fully support it. There is wisdom in the decision of the president,” Nograles told reporters. “We will determine which areas are under MGCQ and GCQ for the month of March and the economic team will work on that framework.”

The government is having a tough time convincing the majority of the Filipinos to accept the vaccines it plans to import from China.

The chief executive’s decision echoes the World Health Organization’s warning that the proposed nationwide relaxation of the community quarantine will lead to the upsurge of Covid-19 cases amid the threat of new virus variants and the delay of the state’s vaccination program.

Apart from the capital region, other areas under GCQ in February are Cordillera Administrative Region, Batangas, Tacloban City, Iligan City, Davao del Norte, Davao City, and Lanao del Sur.

The rest of the country has stayed under the least restrictive MGCQ this month.

Panelo was terse in saying: “The circumstances conspired to delay the arrival of the vaccine so that we will have the time, the space, the opportunity to educate, to convince the 70 percent resisting population of the 100 million target of the vaccination to accept and to believe the safety and the efficacy of the vaccine.”

He said this as he commended the continuous nationwide Covid vaccine information drive led by the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

The former presidential spokesperson also noted the recent development in the vaccination program of the municipality of Pateros as about 79 percent of the Pateros residents are now willing to get vaccinated with coronavirus disease vaccines.

The report was based on the local survey conducted by the municipal government with 550 respondents.

Panelo encouraged Filipinos to participate in the vaccination program once the vaccine becomes available.

“Once the vaccine arrives, we should get vaccinated,” he said.

Former Vice President Jejomar Binay also lauded the national leadership “for making the right decision” against the implementation of a nationwide MGCQ.

“The public’s health and welfare should always be the priority. If only the administration acted with the same focus, efficiency and resolve early last year, we would not be in the sordid situation we are in now,” he said.

“Economic managers claim that easing restrictions would mitigate hunger, poverty, and unemployment. Ironically, record-high hunger, poverty and unemployment can be attributed to the administration’s colossal failure to immediately contain the virus early last year,” Binay added.

Chairman Benhur Abalos Jr. of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), meanwhile, said the Metro Manila Mayors would always defer to the wisdom of the President.

All members of the Cabinet fully support it. There is wisdom in the decision of the president.

“As what we have always emphasized, the Metro Manila mayors would always defer to the wisdom & judgment of the President. We are one with him, and would exert all efforts & rally behind him in combating this Covid-19 pandemic,” Abalos stated in a statement.