NO MATTER how the Palace nor the Armed Forces of the Philippines defend some of the members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) being vaccinated first with the Sinopharm vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), this is still unfair to some.
While it is understandable that there is a need for them to be vaccinated due to the nature of the job, this was an insensitive and unfair action towards the actual people who are attending to Covid-19 patients -- doctors, nurses, medical technologists, and other health care workers.
Many of our health workers are working day and night to attend to Covid-19 patients. Many of them were infected with Sars-CoV-2 and the disease has claimed the lives of several others. Some of them have not seen their families for months due to fears of infecting them; others are being put under lots of stress; several others have also been discriminated against by their neighbors or relatives.
Did the people who decided to have some members of the PSG vaccinated first not think about how this could potentially demoralize some of the health workers, who have been risking their lives since the pandemic began?
In a post by the Philippine Television Network, the Department of Health has identified frontline health workers in public and private sectors, local government unit contact tracers, barangay health workers, and other national government agencies as the first priority groups for Covid-19 vaccination in the Philippines.
The second priority is indigent senior citizens, the third is other senior citizens, the fourth is the remaining indigent population, and the fifth is the uniformed personnel.
With the recent incident, some uniformed personnel has jumped the line. The recent incident is also unfair towards the Department of Health (DOH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and those who are tasked to secure vaccine doses in the country. The incident is also a disrespect towards the rules and regulations surrounding the distribution and use of the vaccine.
"DOH maintains that all vaccines should undergo the evaluation and regulatory process of our regulatory and expert bodies... Only vaccines, which have been approved and found to be safe, should be administered," DOH said in a statement on Monday.
To date, the FDA has not issued any Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the use of a vaccine against Covid-19 in the Philippines. Only Pfizer has applied for a EUA. What has been recently approved is the clinical trials of Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Also, the lack of transparency by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and PSG on how it was able to secure the vaccine and who had administered it, raises a lot of questions. Who else jumped the line and bypassed the process of FDA? How transparent is the government with the procurement of the Covid-19 vaccine?
At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government's messaging was "We heal as one." How can "We heal as one" if the list of individuals prioritized for vaccination is not followed? How can "We heal as one" if the proper process for acquiring vaccine is not followed and had undergone below questionable means?
We do not "heal as one" if we allow the bypassing of existing rules and regulations and jumping the line before those who needed it most.