Philippines and Covid Vaccine

The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is the defining global health crisis of our time
and the greatest challenge we have faced since World War Two. But the pandemic is much
more than a health crisis, it's also an unprecedented socio-economic crisis. Stressing every one
of the countries it touches, it has the potential to create devastating social, economic and
political effects that will leave deep and longstanding scars. Every day, people are losing jobs
and income, with no way of knowing when normality will return.
As of today, in our country the Philippines, Covid Vaccine is now a hot issue where
many of the Filipinos doesn’t want to be vaccinated. Some Filipinos have this fear about the
vaccine because of what they been reading, watching and seen in the news over the televisions,
in newspapers and in social media as well.
According to presidential spokesman Harry Roque the Philippines will buy 20 million
doses of a Covid-19 vaccine from Moderna Inc. The Philippines is lagging behind in securing
stockpiles of the coronavirus vaccine. The challenges it faces are emblematic of much of the
developing world. But then vaccinations have not yet started in the Philippines due to some
reasons and this is the vaccines were not yet arrive. Also, some Filipinos are looking at their
welfare and for their safety.
The Philippines has been negotiating with seven Western and Chinese companies to
secure 148 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine but the effort has been fraught with
uncertainties and confusion. President Rodrigo Duterte says securing the vaccines has been
difficult because wealthy nations have secured massive doses for their citizens first.
President Duterte’s elite guards have acknowledged they have been inoculated with a
still-unauthorized COVID-19 vaccine partly to ensure that they would not infect the 75-year-
old president. President Duterte’s spokesman and other officials have denied the president
himself was vaccinated. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte defended his government’s
decision to purchase Chinese-made coronavirus vaccines, saying they are as good as the shots
developed by the Americans and the Europeans.
Galvez told Senators that initial doses of a vaccine may arrive in the country by
February 20 at the earliest, and that based on this timeline, public inoculation may begin “more
or less” in the 3rd to 4th week of the month. If all deals in advanced negations were successful,
Galvez said the country could purchase some 148 million doses in 2021 to vaccinate some 50 to
70 million Filipinos.
Whichever scenario the pandemic follows, a significant level of COVID-19 infection
is likely to continue worldwide, with hotspots popping up periodically in diverse geographic
areas. As the pandemic wanes, it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 will continue to circulate in the
human population and will synchronize to a seasonal pattern with diminished severity over
time, as with other less pathogenic coronaviruses. So, everyone should be careful about their
selves and always observe and practice the health protocols.