Filipinos can’t choose COVID vaccine brand they want to receive — Palace

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos cannot choose which specific brand of COVID-19 vaccine they want to receive in the government’s free coronavirus vaccination drive, Malacañang said Monday.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said although everyone has the right to health, the public cannot afford to be “picky” with the coronavirus vaccines citing the large quantity of Filipinos who need to be vaccinated against the viral illness.

“Totoo po, meron tayong lahat na karapatan para sa mabuting kalusugan pero hindi naman po pwede na pihikan dahil napakaraming Pilipino na dapat turukan,” Roque said in a televised Palace press briefing.

(It is true that we all have the right to good health but we cannot afford to be picky because there are so many Filipinos who need to be injected.)

Those under the list of priority population who do not want to be vaccinated will have to sign a document waiving his/her priority privilege, Roque explained.

“Wala pong pilian, wala kasing pilitan. Pero magsa-sign ka ng waiver na hindi ka nagpaturok at kapag ikaw ay may prayoridad, siyempre mawawala ang prayoridad mo, sasama ka sa the rest ng taumbayan na naghihintay ng bakuna,” Roque said.

(People cannot choose the brand, they cannot be forced to be inoculated. But they will have to sign a waiver that they did not want to be injected and when you have a priority, of course, you will lose your priority, you will join the rest of the people who are waiting for the vaccine.)

“So tama lang naman po yan, walang pilian kasi hindi naman natin makokontrol talaga kung ano ang darating at libre po ito,” he added.

(It’s only right because we really cannot choose which vaccine will arrive first, and this is free.)

The Philippines has so far secured 2.6 million doses of coronavirus vaccines from British drugmaker AstraZeneca and 30 million doses of Indian-made Covovax vaccine.

In the same press briefing, Roque also announced that the country has also secured 25 million doses of vaccine from China’s Sinovac, a part of which is expected to arrive by February.

JPV