Politicians should get vaccines first: Duterte
Published on: Saturday, February 06, 2021
By: Philstar
MANILA: The country’s leaders and politicians, including President Rodrigo Duterte (pic), should be the first to get Chinese-developed Covid-19 vaccine shots administered in public to set an example to those in doubt of their efficacy and worried about side effects, according to a member of the Octa research group.Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, a molecular biologist, made the suggestion in a virtual interview with “The Chiefs” Wednesday night.
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“Because this is a dire, grave emergency of global proportions,” he said.
The Dominican priest also heads the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Covax Vaccine Awareness Team.
In the interview, Austriaco cited a UST survey that showed a general hesitation among the public to get vaccinated against C-19 with vaccines developed by China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac.
“Based on our work, there’s so much vaccine hesitancy about the Chinese vaccines. But if any of our politicians, if there is a perception that our politicians are avoiding those vaccines, it would be disastrous for the vaccine strategy of the Philippines,” he said.
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“I will just be very honest. We will not be able to achieve our herd immunity without those Chinese vaccines,” Austriaco told The Chiefs from his location in Providence College in Rhode Island, where he is a professor of theology and biology.
Austriaco said a public vaccination of the President and all the politicians should be top priority.
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He cited Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte who had told him of her willingness to be publicly inoculated with Chinese vaccine.
“She has reassured me that she is publicly willing to be vaccinated with a Chinese vaccine. Our politicians are called to serve the common good, they are called to sacrifice and this is a great opportunity for them to show that they are willing to sacrifice their individual good for the good of the country,” Austriaco said. – Philstar
“And this is what I urge the President to do as well,” he added.
He also cited the example set by US President Joseph Biden and former US vice president Mike Pence who got their doses of Covid-19 vaccine in public.
On President Duterte declaring earlier that he was opting for a private vaccination like what Queen Elizabeth II had chosen to do, Austriaco said that he should reconsider.
“He’s not a queen. He’s a president. Please consider being vaccinated so that our people can see that injection entering his arm so that they can realise, if it is good enough and safe enough for the President of the Philippines, it will be good enough and safe for me my family,” Austriaco said. “Otherwise it will be very difficult.”
Austriaco shrugged off concerns on the low efficacy of the Chinese vaccines, saying that even if they just have efficacy rate of 50 percent plus, this would be good enough to get immunity from “severe” Covid-19.
“No efficacy is worse than any efficacy,” he said.
“So I tell people: we are not here to prevent you from getting Covid. We’re here to prevent you from getting Covid so badly you need to go to the hospital,” Austriaco said.
“That’s why the World Health Organization and the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) in the US, approved 50 percent efficacy or above, because the key is not the efficacy, it’s the efficacy against severe Covid,” Austriaco said.
“Our survey showed a significant number of Filipinos… are deeply concerned about Chinese vaccines and yet, we all know we need those Chinese vaccines because there’s not enough Western vaccines to go around. This is why we also included in our survey a question about politicians getting vaccinated,” Austriaco pointed out.
He said that 71 per cent of the 15,000 respondents had this view: look, I would like to be vaccinated after our politicians have been vaccinated.
“In our press release, we actually recommend that the President and all our politicians, mayors included, be vaccinated at the early part of the vaccine campaign… not with Covax, not necessarily with the Covax vaccine. But we want them to be vaccinated with a Chinese vaccine – Sinopharm and Sinovac,” Austriaco said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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