{"id":266392,"date":"2020-08-25T06:29:26","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T10:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=266392"},"modified":"2020-08-25T06:29:26","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T10:29:26","slug":"no-magic-bullet-to-solve-covid-19-pandemic-prrd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/08\/25\/no-magic-bullet-to-solve-covid-19-pandemic-prrd\/","title":{"rendered":"No magic bullet to solve Covid-19 pandemic: PRRD"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte holds a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members at the Matina Enclaves in Davao City on August 24, 2020. ROBINSON NI\u00d1AL JR.\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte said there is no \u201cmagic bullet\u201d to solve the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) health crisis as he sought for more patience until a vaccine is made available.<\/p>\n

In a taped public address aired Tuesday, Duterte assured the public that the government continues to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic by recalibrating its health system strategies.<\/p>\n

He admitted that the government is \u201cnot perfect\u201d in addressing the challenges that arise from the pandemic but noted that it was also doing its best.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no magic wand or if you want a stronger statement a — the magic bullet, a silver bullet, that will solve our problems.\u00a0May sinubukan tayo<\/em>\u00a0(We are trying) since we are not perfect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte, meanwhile, expressed hope that either China or Russia would provide the Philippines with their respective vaccines once clinical trials are completed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMalapit na \u2018yan<\/em>. Russia, China, I dunno if anybody,\u00a0alam ko lang yung dalawa, nag<\/em>-announce\u00a0na meron sila at<\/em>\u00a0(It\u2019s nearly complete. Russia and China have both announced that they have it and they\u2019re) ready and they\u2019re willing to help. Both countries\u00a0lumabas ng<\/em>\u00a0statement\u00a0na tulungan nila ako<\/em>\u00a0(released a statement that they will help me),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The President said he is willing to borrow money to pay for the vaccines if they will not be given for free.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung may bayad, dahil marami masyado, utangin natin<\/em>. Credit\u00a0nalang or hanap tayo ng<\/em>\u00a0loan (If we have to pay for it because it\u2019s too much, let\u2019s borrow money. Credit or let\u2019s get a loan) but if it\u2019s not, I\u2019m sure that they are willing to give us that privilege of borrowing from them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte also reassured that the 20 million poorest of the poor will receive a free Covid-19 vaccine despite the cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng mauna sa bakuna, ulitin ko, ay yung mga tao na nasa sa listahan ng gobyerno na tumatanggap ng Pantawid. Ito yung mga mahirap. Ang sunod yun, yung mga tao na hindi nakalista at mahirap<\/em>\u00a0(The first to receive vaccine will be those in the Pantawid list. Next will be those not in the list but are also poor),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officers, he said, will also be among the first to be inoculated with the vaccine.<\/p>\n

\u201cPero mauna sa lahat ang mga<\/em>\u00a0military\u00a0pati pulis kasi kung walang pulis pati<\/em>\u00a0military,\u00a0babagsak tayo. Sino guguwardiya sa\u2019tin<\/em>\u00a0(But the military and police will be first because without them, we will fall. Who will guard us)?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As for government officials and workers, Duterte said he is still willing to be the first person injected with the vaccine but doesn\u2019t mind being the last one either.<\/p>\n

\u201cYung mga taga gobyerno, kung gusto ninyo ako ang mauna para magkaroon kayo ng<\/em>\u00a0or I could be the last Filipino to get,\u00a0unahin kayong lahat, pahuli kami kumpiyansa<\/em>\u00a0(For government workers, if you want I can be the first one to be injected to erase all doubts or I could be the last Filipino to get, you\u2019ll go first, we\u2019ll be the last),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque earlier said the government can allocate PHP20 billion to buy the vaccine with the help of the Philippine International Trading Corp., Land Bank of the Philippines, and the Development Bank of the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are scheduled to buy for 20 million people at two doses so that\u2019s 40 million no. Forty million\u00a0ang bibilhin natin<\/em>\u00a0(We will purchase 40 million vaccine doses),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Last August 17, Duterte said he will seek a discount from China and Russia on the Covid-19 vaccines that each of the two countries have developed and promise to supply the Philippines with.<\/p>\n

He said the government would borrow money or sell public properties to purchase a Covid-19 vaccine once it is developed.<\/p>\n

Besides China and Russia, the Philippine government is also in talks with several Covid-19 vaccine developers from the United States and the United Kingdom for possible purchases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte said there is no \u201cmagic bullet\u201d to solve the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) health crisis as …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":266393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266394,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266392\/revisions\/266394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}