Hontiveros warns vs 'intentional malpractice' in using Sinovac on elderly
MANILA, Philippines — The government should not go against its own regulators by vaccinating senior citizens with Sinovac doses, a lawmaker said Thursday, calling the move reckless and contrary to national policy.
Malacañang earlier Thursday said it supports vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr.'s recommendation for the eldery to receive the Chinese-made jabs, despite the Food and Drug Administration earlier advising against it.
In a briefing, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Sinovac need only to turn in additonal data to the FDA to revise the emergency use approval it issued for it.
"Giving Sinovac to our senior citizens is intentional malpractice," said Sen. Risa Hontiveros in a statement, partly in Filipino. "It is infuriating that the National Taskforce against COVID-19 is still insisting on this."
The donated jabs from Beijing were the first to arrive in the country and kicked off the vaccination program this month. AstraZeneca doses from the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility came days later.
President Rodrigo Duterte, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III have all begged off from taking Sinovac because of their age.
Hontiveros said government cannot put the lives of the elderly at risk simply to include more sectors in the vaccine program.
"We will take even more steps backwards if we force the most vulnerable sector in the pandemic to take a vaccine that is not recommended for them," the senator said. "Let's start walking in the right direction before things get worse."
Apart from the 600,000 doses of Sinovac that arrived in end-February, some 1.4 million more are seen to arrive in April. A million of it is the administration's first ever purchase of COVID-19 vaccine from any manufacturer, while the 400,000 are another donation from China. — Christian Deiparine
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