A LEADER should inspire his people in the face of this growing pandemic to clear the cloud of pessimism hovering in the Philippines. President Duterte is playing that role. He remains confident the Philippines will overcome the current health crisis, and even offers himself as the first man in the Philippines to test the Russian vaccine.
The availability of an effective vaccine against COVID-19 will certainly lead the way to the full reopening of the Philippine economy this year or early next year.
With Russia recently approving Sputnik V as the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine, other nations such as China and the United States are soon expected to announce their own progress in the search for the COVID-19 cure.
It only means we are a step closer to finding a solution to end the pandemic, which has infected over 20 million people worldwide and claimed the lives of over 730,000 individuals as of Aug. 12, 2020.
President Duterte’s bold offer to become the first person in the Philippines to test the vaccine shows his resolve to find a solution to the health crisis and boost the public’s confidence. Initial reports said the vaccine can offer two-year immunity against COVID-19 based on the studies approved by the Russian Ministry of Health.
The news that Russia approved its own vaccine is like a breath of fresh air, providing us hope that we will survive this health crisis that took the lives of more than 2,400 Filipinos, including Filipino statesmen like former Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, former Senator Heherson Alvarez, former Commission on Elections chairman Sixto Briliantes Jr. and Senior Citizens Party-list Rep. Francisco Datol Jr.
It is sad to note that these distinguished Filipinos spent their last days fighting the virus in ventilators while scientists around the world are in a rush to find a vaccine. How we wish that an effective and safe vaccine were formulated soon enough to save them.
While we are excited that the Russian government approved the first vaccine, it is important to note that it will still take several months to test the vaccine developed by Moscow-based Gamaleya Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology on a select group, before the Philippine government can endorse it for public use. Our own Food and Drug Administration is tasked to make sure that any vaccine is safe and effective, with no serious side effects, before being made commercially available.
In its own timeline, the government which held discussions with Gamaleya representatives, said the Phase 3 clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccine would be conducted in the Philippines and other countries from October 2020 to March 2021 prior to its registration for commercial use by April next year. Phase 3 involves large-scale clinical trials to check for the efficacy of the vaccine. In Russia, authorities are conducting Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials of Sputnik V until September and plan to administer mass vaccination by October.
The long process aims to make sure the vaccine is indeed safe and to erase the suspicion of health experts from other countries, particularly the US, which are developing their own vaccines against the coronavirus. (To be continued/PN)
