By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
If everything goes well – and that’s a very big IF – Filipinos will get the first crack at the world’s first coronavirus vaccines in the international market.
There are three leading the way, and the first of them is Sputnik V, a COVID-19 vaccine-candidate developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, which will hold Phase 3 clinical trials in the Philippines next month.
CoronaVac, China’s vaccine-candidate, developed by Sinovac Biotech Ltd., has already secured approval by the government for emergency use of its medical frontliners. It is on its Phase 3 trials in Indonesia and Brazil.
Also, China National Biotec Group, a unit of the state-owned Sinopharm, has obtained emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine-candidate. However, published scientific data state that Sinopharm’s vaccine may require 1-2 booster shots for stronger immunity, which may complicate future mass inoculation. The upside claim of Sinopharm is that its version of the vaccine is safer than others.
Gaining inside track on access to any and all of these vaccine-candidates is the Philippines. Credit that to President Duterte, according to Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Undersecretary Rowena Guevarra, who heads the technical working group on vaccine development in the country.
Nikkei Asian Review reports that Duterte got ahead in assembling a group of local experts and mobilizing diplomats to link up with coronavirus vaccine developers worldwide, not just for access to an effective serum but, to transfer the biotechnology for local manufacturing of the vaccine.
It’s a tactical move by the President worthy of praise, as we see Russia and China both inclined to commit their best-concocted cures for this pandemic to the Philippines. Of course, this would not have happened if not for Duterte’s diplomacy, says Guevarra.
But what is his diplomacy, anyway, apart from flattering China and its leader Xi Jinping for being the kindest of presidents in the world, or calling Russian President Vladimir Putin his idol? Or does this cure come at a deadlier cost?
If I recall correctly, it was in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July 27 when Duterte appealed to Xi for priority in accessing its vaccine against COVID-19. The plea slid off his tongue as gently as his news that China was in possession of Philippine-claimed territories in the South China Sea and that all we could do is to exercise diplomacy.
Are we in the rut of begging for a vaccine to spare over 100 million of our people from the pandemic (which they “started”) at the cost of surrendering our sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea?
As truly as they have been described, cures are a bitter pill to swallow. But at the cost of our sovereignty, this is such bad, bad medicine.
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