Concepcion hopes for easier public access to vaccines

MANILA, Philippines — Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion is hoping that the public will have easier access to COVID-19 vaccines in the future by allowing their purchase from hospitals, clinics and drugstores.

In a Go Negosyo town hall meeting yesterday, Concepcion said that in the United States, the vaccination process is very easy and casual as bivalent COVID-19 vaccines are available to the public in drugstores.

“It’s a very simple process. Through your phone or your computer, you just type in an appointment and you can choose your vaccine, which is either Pfizer or Moderna,” Concepcion said.

“So eventually that’s what we want to do in the Philippines. We want the big, the large hospitals, bigger clinics and even the drugstores eventually to implement this,” he said.

In the US, Concepcion said, this is not only being done for COVID-19 vaccines but also for vaccines against other diseases such as shingles, pneumonia, flu.

“And I think down the road this is what we would like to see in our health care – that access to vaccines. Of course, it will not be free, [but] can be easily accessed. So I think that’s the model moving forward,” Concepcion said.

He said there should be eventual transition from the government buying the vaccine to having the public buying it themselves, as the country moves to a more manageable COVID situation.

“I don’t think the government has the resources to keep funding all of these vaccines because as you can see, our debt levels have gone up to you know all time high… specially with interest rates going up the government will be paying more – that will be an additional cost,” Concepcion said.

The Go Negosyo founder earlier proposed that private hospitals be deputized by the government to procure and administer the bivalent vaccines against COVID-19.

He reasoned that all private hospitals are capable of handling vaccinations and all can explore agreements with the government as part of the private sector.

Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings chief medical officer Benjamin Co agreed with Concepcion’s proposal.

“I think the best option is to make it available for a fee or at cost. For those who can very well afford it, they can get it from private clinics that offer this and we can charge an administration fee plus the cost of the vaccine,” Co said.

In an earlier statement, Go Negosyo pointed out that the bivalent vaccines provide broader protection against COVID-19 and better protection against its Omicron variant.

“Unless the vaccine manufacturers file a CPR, this round of bivalent vaccinations can be done through a tripartite agreement like we did before, but this time with the private hospitals,” Concepcion said earlier.

“We already have the arrangement with DOH that we will pre-register employees who qualify under the priority sector. But for those who are not in the priority sector but are willing to pay to be vaccinated with bivalent vaccines, we should also make it available to them through the hospitals owned by the private sector,” he said.