Galvez urges public anew: Trust vaccine experts

MANILA – Have faith in your government.

Thus urged National Policy Against Covid-19 chief implementer, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., on Friday as he asked Filipinos to trust the experts and the Food and Drug Administration on the acquisition of safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines.

The vaccine czar issued the appeal during the visit of officials of the Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic Team, National Task Force Against Covid-19, and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases in Parañaque City.

“Kaya kami kumuha ng vaccine portfolio na pito dahil malakas ang paniniwala natin sa mga vaccine experts (We have chosen these seven vaccine portfolios because we fully trust our vaccine experts),” he said.

Galvez appealed for support to the “moral conviction” of the National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups and Health Technology Assessment Council to come up with sound decisions.

The government is closely working with local government units (LGUs) and the private sector to fully halt the spread of Covid-19, he assured.

“Magtiwala din po tayo sa ating gobyerno, magtiwala tayo sa LGU natin na yung vaccination na gagawin natin ay (Trust the government and the LGUs that the vaccination plan will be) based on medical recommendation,” he said.

The government targets to acquire full herd immunity once the vaccination program goes in full swing.

“Dapat scientific-based po talaga ang implementation ng inoculation program (The implementation of the inoculation program should have to be scientifically-based),” he added.

Galvez lauded Parañaque as among the four low-risk cities in Metro Manila in terms of active Covid-19 cases. He said it is an indicator of the effectiveness of the city’s mitigation efforts to control the spread of the dreaded virus.

Parañaque has only 132 active cases as of February 1.

Galvez then reiterated President Rodrigo Duterte’s remarks that LGUs play a crucial role in the nationwide vaccination campaign.

“In this national vaccination program, he is banking on you (LGUs) also,” he said.

Additional doses 

The government requested the management of the COVAX Facility for the more than 900,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines, apart from the 117,000 doses set to arrive on February 20.

COVAX is the global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income level. It aims to provide access to almost 2.3 billion doses of vaccines this year.

The additional doses of Pfizer-BioNtech vaccines are meant to ensure that health care workers will be inoculated.

“Ang (goal) po natin dito ay talagang mapangalagaan ang mga taong nagbibigay serbisyo sa panahon ng Covid-19 pandemic at talagang ito po ay inilaan po natin sa ating mga health care workers (Our goal is to really take care of the people providing services during the Covid-19 pandemic and we really dedicate it to our health care workers,” he said.

Out of 60 countries with ongoing vaccination programs, only four countries (the United States, China, the United Kingdom, and Europe) are massively inoculating with 100,000 million doses already used up, Galvez shared.

“Almost 50 million pa lang ang nababakunahan (Only about 50 million are vaccinated) which is only comprised of 0.5 percent of the global population of more than 7,800,000,000 (individuals),” he said.

The first batch of the Pfizer vaccines will be allotted for some 56,000 medical employees and hospital staff, including those at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila, Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital in Caloocan, and Quezon City’s Lung Center of the Philippines, and East Avenue Medical Center.

The succeeding doses will be given next to health care workers manning all available Covid-19 referral facilities and hospitals located in Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao, Galvez added.