MANILA, Philippines — The country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is coordinating with other government agencies like the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to prevent the entry of fake Covid-19 vaccines.
This comes amid reports of a crackdown on vials of counterfeit coronavirus jabs from China.
“Meron nang pakikipag-ugnayan ang FDA, ang ating Bureau of Customs na talagang susuriing maiigi itong mga dokumento ng mga bakunang darating, at magkakaroon pa po sila ng orientation patungkol dito,” said Secretary Francisco Duque III when asked if the Department of Health has already put in place measures to bar the entry and proliferation of bogus Covid-19 vaccines in the country.
(There’s already coordination between our FDA and our Bureau of Customs to really scrutinize the documents of arriving vaccines and for them to have orientation regarding this matter.)
“At ako naman ay nakakasiguro na itong mga pekeng bakuna na ito — ay harinawa ay ‘di makapasok at kung saka-sakali naman makapasok — ‘don pa lang sa border controls natin ay talagang mapigilan na at maimbestigahan at makasuhan ang mga salarin, so ‘yan po ang pinaghahandaan,” he added.
(As for me, I’m assured that these fake vaccines — hopefully, won’t be able to infiltrate and if ever it does — we can intercept immediately at our border controls and investigate and prosecute perpetrators. That’s what’s being prepared for.)
On Tuesday, China’s state news agency Xinhua said more than 80 people were arrested in different police operations conducted in Beijing, Shanghai, and the eastern province of Shandong where 3,000 doses of false vaccines were seized.
Further reports have shown that the sinister scheme has been going on since September 2020. According to the news report, the fake vaccines only contained saline — a solution of water and salt.
The suspects appeared to have been sending the sham vaccines overseas.