Duterte Gets Vaccinated Against COVID-19

PHOTO BY Jerome Ascano

(SPOT.ph) Two months after the Philippines received the first batch of COVID-19 vaccine, President Rodrigo Duterte himself got inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese state-owned Sinopharm on Monday, May 3. This was revealed in a Facebook Live post by his former aide, Bong Go.

The vaccine was administered by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.

"I feel good," Duterte said after the shot.

China's Sinopharm was also used to inoculate Duterte's Presidential Security Group in February after the Food and Drug Administration approved their application for "compassionate special permit."

To date, there are only six vaccines issued with Emergency Use Authorization by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This permit is required before a vaccine can be administered legally in the country. The documents are publicly available on their website. These are:

• Pfizer-BioNTech - granted on January 14, 2021;
• AstraZeneca - granted on January 28, 2021;
• CoronaVac (by Sinovac) - granted on February 22, 2021;
• Sputnik V (by Gamalaya) - granted on March 19, 2021;
• Jannsen (by Johnson and Johnson) - granted on April 19, 2021;
• and Covavaxin by (Bharat Biotech) - granted on April 19, 2021.

The FDA said on April 13 that they have yet to receive the required documents from Sinopharm to be able to review their product for Emergency Use Authority.

"Ang hindi pa malinaw po sa atin ay Sinopharm. May sumulat po sa amin na gustong mag-apply pero noong hiningian po namin ng requirements, hindi pa po nila ibinibigay," FDA Director General Eric Domingo previously said.

It can be remembered that Duterte announced in August 2020 that he is willing to participate in trials for the Russian COVID-19 vaccine called Sputnik V. The country received 15,000 doses of said vaccine developed by Gamalaya Institute on Saturday, May 1.

The country has so far received 4.04 million vaccine doses, a bulk of which include CoronaVac by China-based Sinovac Biotech Limited, while the rest are AstraZeneca vaccines that came as donation from the COVAX facility. More than 1.8 million doses have been administered as of April 27.

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Source: Spot PH