Dengvaxia was the need of the hour

The antidengue vaccine Dengvaxia was procured by the previous administration because it was the need of the hour: Hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren were coming down with the mosquito-borne ailment every year.

Dengue, called H-fever in the ’60s and ’70s, has killed thousands of children and adults.

Almost every family in the country, including this columnist’s, has had a member who contracted dengue.

I know of many people — rich and poor alike, including a Navy commodore and a daughter of a very rich friend — who died of dengue.

If not detected early, dengue is fatal.

Then President Noynoy Kuyakoy, inspite of your opinion about the way he ran the country, was driven by a noble desire to rid the country of the dreaded disease.

So, it’s not surprising that the chair of the House committee on good government, Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel, has virtually cleared the former president of any liability in the controversy.

For why should a person be held accountable for an action that later went awry if his intentions were good?

If corruption attended the purchase of the Dengvaxia vaccine, former Budget Secretary Butch Abad should be made liable, not Noynoy.

Neither should Janette Garin, the former health secretary, be held accountable for corruption because she didn’t hold the purse strings.

More so now in light of the findings by pathologists of the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) that the 14 children injected with Dengvaxia died of other causes.

The three children whose deaths were attributed especially to Dengvaxia died despite the vaccine and not because of it, according to the UP-PGH findings.

Now, whom should the public believe that Dengvaxia killed the 14 children covered by the study: UP-PGH pathologists or Dr. Erwin Erfe whose credentials as a pathologist are under a cloud?

Erfe claims affiliation with the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute (Acfei) in the United States which is allegedly a diploma mill.

A woman who had no background in medicine reportedly became an Acfei member after paying a fee.

According to the Washington Post, Acfei is a discredited group.

Acfei’s founder, Robert O’Block, 66, killed his 27-year-old girlfriend and then committed suicide after he was exposed as a fraud.

* * *

Many drug addicts who resorted to crimes to support their vice have been killed in President Digong’s continuing war on drugs and crime.

Many cops are into drugs and crime; they, too, face the risk of suffering the same fate.

That’s one way of ridding society of abusive and criminal cops.

* * *

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has welcomed the appointment of resigned Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon as deputy administrator of the Office of Civil Defense.

Lorenzana says Faeldon is “honest and competent.”

Say again, please?