“Dengvaxia, not Acosta, is the real culprit”
With the permission of Atty. Dodo Dulay, I wish to say that I agree with what he said in his column “Flipside” entitled “Dengvaxia, not Acosta, is the real culprit” in the Manila Times, September 24, 2019.
Let me quote what Atty. Dulay said in his column: “True. Acosta’s very public crusade against the evils of Dengvaxia – especially after the death of 145 people, mostly children, who were inoculated with an untested vaccine – may have eroded the public’s trust in the government’s immunization or vaccination program. But the fault lies squarely on the DOH for prematurely rolling out an experimental drug and administering it improperly in the first place. If the Health Department hadn’t foisted this unproven vaccine on unsuspected parents and their children, we wouldn’t be in this mess at all. Don’t shoot the messenger.”
That in a nutshell says it all for evidently even “The World Health Organization (WHO) released an update stating that Dengvaxia may be ineffective or may even increase the risk in those who have not yet had the disease at the time of the first vaccination.” Atty. Dulay further stated that “…the Philippines was the first Asian country to approve the commercial sale of Dengvaxia… no country was using it. Malaysia rejected it. Singapore allowed it only for private use.” It’s also surprising to know that Dengvaxia had no Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.
The big question here is: Did Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) Chief Persida Acosta have any choice but to follow the mandated duty of her office to defend those victims who cry out for help? PAO Chief Persida Acosta simply did what she had to do. It would have been worse had no one defended the victims. Her office would have been cursed for not attending and helping those who were aggrieved victims of Dengvaxia.
The parents of those 145 children who already died after being vaccinated have all the rights to be heard by the government and the agency tasked to help them is the PAO headed by Chief Persida Acosta; and maybe other related government departments and agencies. They might have acted but were never heard.
Let no one say that it was Chief Acosta who exacerbated the deadly situation. On the contrary, it was her office that gave candor to the relatives of the victims who died – those who needed help in their predicament. Thanks to the PAO Chief for giving her all in support of their grievances. And they know what happened to their children, the stages they went through after the Dengvaxia vaccination, enough to let the people know what happened to the children.
In my opinion, PAO Chief Persida Acosta helped save more would-be victims. Had she not spoken out, the government might have continued the vaccination of a questionable and deadly product; and had the public not spoken out, baka tanggapin pa ng tao na walang problema ang Dengvaxia. Without the help of a government entity tasked to help those who needed help, the cry of the parents of the victims might have been silenced to the disadvantage of the entire country and its people. That could have very well happened.
I much rather side with PAO Chief’s dedicated effort to flash out the truth; and there were indeed enough information/facts gathered to stop the continuation of the vaccination program. Responsible people would rather err fighting for what they believe is right, than allow something so glaringly wrong to continue and wreak more havoc to life and limb.
Ano kaya ang nangyari sa issue ng Dengvaxia kung walang nagsalita? Maybe by now, we would have accepted the deadly vaccine as something good sa lakas ng lobby ng pharmaceutical companies, worldwide.
I was told that PAO Chief Persida Acosta gave so much effort to flash out what truly happened; and some wants to put the blame on her when she was the one who helped unravel what was wrong? Think about it. 145 fourth grade children died, enough to convince the public that indeed there was something wrong with the Dengvaxia vaccine given them – and to minors about the same age, all over the country. The similarity of cause of death is appalling.
Had I been in her position, I probably would have done the same thing and spoken out to cause awareness for the good of our people; and to alarm the public until proven otherwise. After all, something unusual was happening out of the ordinary.
Somebody had to do it.
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