Several organizations of health workers are urging the government to be accountable for its national Covid-19 vaccination program.
The Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) issued the call as the government prepares for the arrival of the first shipment of Covid-19 vaccines this month.
In a press briefing on Friday, leaders of the groups said the government should assure the vaccines to be administered to health workers must not only be safe and effective but should also be free.
“We therefore call the government and the Department of Health to have a free, safe, and a high effectiveness rate Covid-19 vaccine to all health workers and the people… the government should also monitor those inoculated for possible adverse side effects of the vaccine,” AHW President Robert Mendoza said.
Mendoza said the government must provide free hospitalization to inoculated workers who will develop severe allergic reactions and indemnify those who may die.
Jocelyn Andamo, secretary general of the Filipino Nurses United, said health workers doubt if the government will be fully transparent in carrying out the mass vaccination, pointing to issues such as the advanced vaccination of military and police personnel and the revisions in the prioritization guidelines.
“What we need is a more reassuring government’s statement of concern and accountability to reinforce the motivation in seeking vaccine protection. What we need is transparency and consistency in words of care and actual support to health workers,” Andamo said.
Dr. Magdalena Barcelon of the Solidarity of Health Advocates and Personnel for a Unified Plan to Defeat Covid-19 or Shape Up to Defeat Covid-19 urged the government to be more systematic and scientific in carrying out the vaccination program.
Dr, Eleanor Jara of the Doktor ng Bayan (Doctors of the Nation) questioned the “compassionate” permit issued to the Presidential Security Group for the 10,000 doses of the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine.
Adrien Pizarra of the Philippine Medical Students Association said medical students, such as clerks and interns, should also be considered as frontliners and therefore entitled to the same benefits as medical frontliners, including vaccinations, as they start face-to-face medical classes.
On Friday, Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go gave an update on the delivery of vaccines from the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) Facility.
Covax is a global initiative led by the World Health Organization to ensure equitable access to vaccines, especially to poor and developing countries.
In a statement Wednesday, Go said the government was finalizing requirements for the delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine from Covax to the country. He added that the Pfizer vaccine from the facility would be arriving in the country soon.
Go said earlier that 117,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 5.5 million to 9 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were due in the first quarter of 2021.
He said the Sinovac vaccine to be donated by China was expected to arrive soon and President Rodrigo Duterte was planning on setting aside a portion for uniformed personnel.
China has pledged to donate 600,000 doses of vaccines while the country seeks to buy 50 million more doses.
Vaccine orders from private companies are also shipping in May, Go said. Thirty million doses of Novavax vaccine from India are expected to arrive in April through December.
Go also appealed to the government to include for priority vaccination athletes who will compete in upcoming international events, such as the Tokyo Olympics and Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi later this year.
On Friday, the country’s vaccine czar, Carlito Galvez Jr., assured that the Philippines would not lose the vaccines from Covax despite the one-week delay in shipping them to the country.
Galvez made the assurance after Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the country “may be losing the free 44 million vaccines” due to the indemnity issue.
In a television interview, Galvez said the government was already ironing out the indemnity agreement with Covax to prevent further delivery delays.
Galvez said the government lawyers were hoping to finish the indemnity agreement Friday “so that we won’t have any more obstruction on the delivery of the vaccine.”
He explained that under the indemnification clause, Covax and vaccine manufacturers were not liable for vaccine injuries, since the government will assume responsibility for immunization efforts.
Galvez earlier informed the Senate the country could have received 117,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by now if the Philippines had an indemnification law.
He has been calling on Congress to pass such a law, which he said was required by the Covax Facility.
Two bills seeking to establish an indemnification fund for vaccine-related injuries have been filed at the Senate.
The Philippines was originally expecting the delivery of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines from the Covax Facility by mid-February.
The country is also expecting to receive Sinovac doses within this month.
The Food and Drug Administration has yet to issue an Emergency Use Authorization for the Chinese vaccine.
At the House of Representatives, Kabataan Rep. Sarah Elago led her colleagues in the Makabayan bloc in filing a resolution prioritizing teachers and students in the vaccination program.
In House Resolution 1574, the lawmakers pointed out that the long-term closure of schools has a negative impact on students’ learning, safety and well-being.
They said teachers are not included in the top tier of the priority list and students are not prioritized at all.
Based on the list of the Interim Immunization Technical Advisory Group of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, teachers are included in the second batch of priority after frontline health workers, senior citizens, persons with comorbidities, frontline personnel in essential sectors including uniformed personnel, and the indigent population.
The group also pointed out that if the education sector is vaccinated early, “school buildings could even serve as vaccination centers for the general public, hence facilitating the faster rollout of our vaccination program.”
In the Senate, Majority Leader Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri clarified that his Senate Bill (SB) 2042 is not going to give local government units (LGUs) precedence over the national government in terms of vaccine procurement.
“National government pa rin ang masusunod (The national government is still to be followed) — LGUs still need to follow the national guidelines for vaccine deployment set by the Department of Health and the National Task Force Against Covid-19. So, no one should fear inequitable distribution, Zubiri said.
LGUs who will not be able to purchase vaccines on their own will still be covered by the national government vaccine rollout, he said.
Zubiri issued the clarification after the Health Professionals Alliance Against Covid-19 (Hpaac) opposed the passage of his bill exempting LGUs from procurement requirements.
Dr. Antonio Dans, Hpaac president, said once the bill is enacted, there will be a maldistribution of vaccines because the purchase of the vaccine by LGUs will be based on their capacity to buy, and not on their actual need for it.
Zubiri said the bill was requested by all the LGUs.
“Around 70 local government units are in negotiations with vaccine suppliers and they need to deposit advance payments to secure them. Otherwise, we will lose the allocation. They are requesting that they also be exempted from the requirement of purchasing of goods and services from suppliers with the lowest bid. This is not possible with the Covid-19 vaccine as it is supply-driven. It is impossible because the lowest price is not always available,” he said.
WITH DIVINA NOVA JOY DELA CRUZ AND CATHERINE S. VALENTE
Source: ManilaTimes
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