'All bets on one horse?'
Hontiveros questions COVID-19 vaccine panel's favoring of Sinovac

"Ang press release ay mauunang dadating ang Sinovac kaya ito pabor sa Pilipino. Bakit pinipilit itaya ang kalusugan natin sa pagkapanalo ng isang kabayo? Wag nating gawing paligsahan ang kalusugan ng Pilipino para lang bayaran ng utang na loob ang kaninuman. If we make vaccine approval a winner-take-all situation, matatalo ang taumbayan."

This according to Senator Risa Hontiveros who questioned the Department of Science and Technology Vaccine Expert Panel (DOST-VEP)'s seeming favoring of Sinovac and Sinopharm as the top two vaccines considered for the national inoculation plan.

Hontiveros asked the DOST-VEP to justify their preferences for Sinovac and Sinopharm, despite the vaccines reportedly having 'inconsistent or questionable data'. "Why are we considering Sinopharm when they haven't even published data for other experts to verify?," she added.

She also highlighted that clashing information on the supposed arrival date of the different vaccines was being given. "Kahit wala pa siyang Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), Sinovac lang daw ang dadating sa Pebrero. Pero ayon kay Sec. Galvez, halos kasabay pala nito ang Pfizer na mayroong approved EUA na. Tapos, sabi ng Palasyo, lahat ng tatanggi sa Sinovac, mapupunta sa huli ng pila— kahit ang mga health workers. Bakit parang ang prioridad ay masabi lang na naunang dumating at nagamit ang Sinovac, kaysa ang kaligtasan ng publiko?," she asked.

Hontiveros said that it is crucial that the qualifications, manner of selection, and disclosure of potential conflict of interest of the DOST-VEP be made transparent to the public: "We need a panel of experts whose only stake in this is giving the public the safest and most effective vaccines. We should hold them accountable for their decisions," she said.

The senator then brought up the illegal inoculation of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) with unregulated vaccines, suspected to be China's Sinopharm. She said this was an example of 'gross irresponsibility', which still begs the question of who in the Interagency Taskforce on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) will be held accountable should the vaccines prove to be harmful or fatal.

"Mino-monopolize daw ng national government ang procurement para nasa kanila ang accountability. Pero kung nagkaroon ng real proof of harm, sino sa inyo ang aako ng responsibilidad? Sinong makakasuhan sa inyo?," she asked the IATF.

"Sino ba ang makikinabang kung ang first touchdown sa bansa ay ang 'Made in China'? Para sa akin, hindi isyu kung alin at saan manggagaling ang mga bakunang gagamitin laban sa COVID-19. Ang mahalagang linawin ay kung garantisado ang bisa, ligtas gamitin ng marami, at darating sa takdang panahon. Government should stop acting like the med rep for any single brand, because there should be no first place prize for a vaccine. We need to get all safe vaccines here: As many, as soon and as effective as possible," she concluded.