President Rodrigo Duterte asked China to get its donated Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines back after apologizing to the public for receiving its first dose.
There are around 1,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines. It was injected into Duterte on Monday even without Food and Drug Administration (FDA) registration. Whether they have a special permit here, it seems unfair to the public that only received Sinovac or AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
“[W]ell, we are sorry that we committed the things that you are criticizing us for. We accept responsibility. At ako mismo nagpaturok, well, it’s the decision of my doctor,” Duterte said on Wednesday night.
“When the government allowed it to be used for compassionate use, that itself was an authority for people to be injected. Pero kakaunti lang ang naturukan nito… You withdraw all Sinopharm vaccines, 1,000 of them. Huwag ka na lang magpadala ng Sinopharm dito para walang gulo. Sabi ko ibigay mo lang sa amin ‘yong Sinovac na ginagamit sa lahat.”
Duterte wants to return donated Sinopharm vaccines to China
Duterte said this even though he does not have a second dose of Sinopharm. It is not yet clear if he will inject another COVID-19 vaccine to complete the dosage.
A compassionate special permit (CSP) is issued by the FDA to hospitals or doctors to use drugs that do not yet have a certificate of product registration.
Unlike Sinovac and AstraZeneca, Sinopharm still does not have an emergency use authority (EUA), which is another permit to use an unregistered drug during a public health emergency.
But since Sinopharm does not yet have an EUA, it has not yet gone through any study by local medical experts and has not yet submitted any documents.
In December 2020, AFP spokesman, Marine Major General Edgard Arevalo admitted that Duterte’s Presidential Security Group (PSG) were the first ones in the military to received COVID-19 vaccines, even if the regulators have not yet approved any vaccine for use in the Philippines at the time.
COVID-19 has hit 1,071,55 in the Philippines, according to the Department of Health yesterday. Of that number, 17,800 were dead.
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