Of vaccines and lies

Three weeks ago, it was my intention to write about an article published by the Reuters news agency exposing the US Pentagon’s conducting a disinformation campaign against China’s Sinovac anti-COVID vaccine.

In the report, Reuters sources alleged that the disinformation campaign was intended as payback for China’s claims that certain US labs had invested in Wuhan, China where COVID was first reported. That claim, in turn, was China’s way of turning the tables on the US, which insisted that China give full access to foreign investigators to determine ground zero of COVID-19.

Based on what has been published and made public, it seems that there has been no strong denial of the Reuters claim. In fact, the report is now circulating and becoming a reference material for pro-vaccination campaigners. As it turns out, all the disinformation about vaccines and vaccination is more about political propaganda and counter punching.

Much of the disinformation was also utilized to protect and promote corporate interests, with people willing to do anything and everything to get ahead of the competition, delay or slow down the momentum of competitors or, in the case of the COVID vaccine, penetrate and control markets or use the much-needed vaccines as territorial markers of influence, which China did successfully.

What is tragic is that thousands to millions of people died in different countries due to the disinformation and intent to delay distribution of Sinovac. If I recall correctly, there were over 50,000 Filipinos who died due to COVID.

Worst of all was that the fear mongering individuals – who were not doctors, not scientists and not experts – who shared unverified information, cures etc. only to find out now that they were fooled or misled by foreign political propagandists and not by doctors of medicine.

My worry now is that the same destructive disinformation and utter ignorance may once again cause the death of hundreds if not thousands of children and adults who might be infected by dengue. The rainy season is now here and with the rains come the puddles, the pools of water and the irritating or deadly mosquitoes that infect people with the dengue virus.

Due to a simple corporate miscommunication, made worse by intentional disinformation and agents of catastrophes, the Philippines lost the right to use a dengue vaccine that was first field tested in the Philippines and has since been pulled out and distributed elsewhere.

While many countries in Asia, South America, etc. have introduced Dengvaxia in their list of government tested and approved pharmaceuticals, the Philippines no longer has access to it. Meanwhile, all the investigations in court, in Congress and the DOH have not accomplished anything nor provided clarity or factual determination on the Dengvaxia controversy.

In the meantime, three medical associations – namely the Philippine Medical Association, Philippine College of Physicians, Philippine Pediatric Association – and the Department of Health recently announced their joint effort to fight the spread of dengue once again.

DOH Secretary Ted Herbosa shared how dengue strains public health resources annually and has set “an ambitious yet achievable goal of zero dengue deaths by 2030.” According to Secretary Herbosa, the DOH will focus on implementing primary care and prioritize environmental health.

In other words, the Philippines will once again implement the “same old-same old” tactics of fogging, clearing esteros, barangay-based education campaigns, all of which are helpful but will not ensure the success of the campaign of zero dengue deaths by 2030. As Einstein said: “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity.”

What the Philippines’ public health care needs is real medicine – and that has been proven to be vaccination. Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z have all been vaccinated for various types of diseases such as measles, polio, etc.

Most of us have been vaccinated multiple times for COVID-19 and today people once again worry more about the flu than COVID. We no longer live in fear of COVID because we have been vaccinated.

What all the stakeholders need to do is clean the slate, do the science, research and statistical analysis from the past based on accepted sample population or those school kids who were vaccinated with the anti-dengue vaccine.

They are out there, and they can tell us if they ever got dengue or not. Did they have to go to the hospital and be confined? Interview the pediatricians, family doctors, ER nurses and compile the data. Why is nobody doing this? Is it because the alleged morbidities associated with Dengvaxia are microscopic or none at all, relative to scientific and medical scoring or data?

Aside from wiping the slate clean, presenting scientific data and statistics, the Department of Justice or the Supreme Court can help by getting the judge or judges hearing Dengvaxia-related cases to speed up their process because the legal matters also need to be resolved and settled beyond doubt so people and government can move on.

I am told that one or two Japanese firms are committed to come in where Sanofi was driven out. One is the Takeda group, and another is Kao. Not many Filipinos may know, but the Japanese are respected in the field of developing vaccines and were quietly developing vaccines for different diseases or viruses, including COVID and dengue, among others.

If the DOH and Filipinos ever hope to benefit from real medicine or the new dengue vaccine, then we all need to make sure that we clear the path of lies, disinformation and those who “bear false witness” and cause injury or harm to others. Healers heal, they don’t want the politics or the perjury.