Wealthy countries that secured vast inventories of COVID-19 vaccines are willing to give less developed nations with inoculation after President Rodrigo Roa Duterte made a call for an equitable access in his recent United Nations (UN) address, the country’s coronavirus task force chief implementer said Monday.
During his meeting with President Duterte, National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. reported that developed nations have secured around 80 percent of the vaccines to be manufactured by pharmaceutical companies.
“Kaya nga po napakaganda po ng mga speeches niyo po sa ating UN na dapat na katulad po natin ay mabigyan po tayo ng accessible sa equitable access doon sa vaccine, sir,” Galvez told President Duterte.
“Maganda po ‘yung panawagan na ‘yon at maganda po na iyong mga ibang bansa na nakabili ng more than their population, they are more than willing to share it with us particularly po ang Australia, sir, at saka ‘yung ibang bansa.”
China, he said, is also willing to provide the Philippines with COVID-19 vaccines.
In his virtual UN address last weekend, President Duterte urged other countries to cooperate with the UN in ensuring universal access to COVID-19 vaccines that are under development.
The Philippine leader called for a unified action to tackle the spread of the coronavirus during his second address to the UN General Assembly this year.
He said “collective initiatives in the UN and other multilateral frameworks are our best chance to defeat the pandemic".
Also on Monday, President Duterte has assured the public that the vaccines being developed by several pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and by Chinese developers are safe.
“Puro approved ito at puro mabisa ito lahat. I mean to say that they are not the cure but they can be the prevention and eventually make the nation healthy again,” he said.
“Iyong lahat na bakuna nabili ni General Galvez maski saan-saang countries na gumagawa. China, it could be Australia, pero puro okay ‘yan.”
A certain portion of the country’s population expressed apprehension about getting COVID-19 shot, particularly after false information about the vaccine circulated on social media. PND
