MANILA – President Rodrigo R. Duterte may have volunteered to be the first person to be inoculated with a coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine from Russia but there is no certainty that the Presidential Security Group (PSG) would allow him to push through, Malacañang said Wednesday.
In an interview over CNN Philippines, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque explained that the PSG, which provides close-in security to the President, might not allow him to be a “guinea pig” even if he is ready to risk his life to save thousands of others.
“I think it was perfectly fine for him to offer it because that’s his way of telling the people that ‘I want us to have a vaccine and if I have to be the guinea pig for it, I don’t mind.’ Because that’s the attitude of the President – he’s old, he’s at the end of his term, he can sacrifice his life for the Filipino people,” Roque said.
He said the PSG is bound to prevent any threat to the President’s life even if it means preventing him from making his own decisions.
“As to whether or not (the) PSG will actually allow him, it’s a different thing because already we know that even in the last (state of the nation address), after his address he wanted to shake hands with the members of Congress and PSG did not allow him. So it’s difficult to be President because, in a way, you have limited your free will. The PSG is there to guard you and they are very good at doing their job,” Roque added.
He said Duterte’s willingness to be the first person to be injected could also be taken as a “signal” to the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure the thorough review of the vaccine before it is administered to the public.
“With the President saying he wants to be injected with it, I think the FDA would have to go out of its way to fast-track the clinical studies that are required and it can be done anyway. So, the words of the President constitutes actionable policy and it’s a signal also to our local FDA to do everything and anything it can to make sure that it can be administered to the President safely,” Roque said.
A vaccine, he said, is the only way to put “closure” to the prevailing health crisis that has infected more than 20 million people globally.
“It’s the only way actually that we can find closure to this problem of Covid-19, having a vaccine,” Roque said.
He expressed confidence that the FDA would be able to effectively do its job by ensuring that the Russian vaccine would undergo clinical trials.
“Before the FDA could approve it, the universities will have to conduct clinical studies to prove that it has no adverse effects. So it is good news but it still has to go through our local processes because we can’t do away with them,” Roque said.
He, however, said the vaccine could also be given for compassionate use or expanded access, which, according to the US FDA, is a potential pathway for a patient with an immediately life-threatening or serious disease or condition to gain access to an investigational medical product for treatment outside of clinical trials when no comparable or satisfactory alternative therapy options are available.
On Monday, Duterte accepted Russia’s offer to provide free vaccines once mass production starts.
The vaccine, named Sputnik-V, a reference to the surprise 1957 launch of the world’s first satellite by the then Soviet Union, was developed by the Moscow-based Gamaleya Institute.
However, concerns have been raised over its safety and effectiveness as it has yet to go through crucial Phase 3 trials.