Are 617,000 health workers enough to vaccinate 70 million in two years?

MANILA, Philippines — The government should launch a massive training program for health workers to administer vaccines to about 70 million Filipinos in the next two years, alongside the inoculation program it is set to undertake starting February, Sen. Richard Gordon said.

The senator expressed alarm over the supposed lack of capability among Department of Health (DOH) personnel to conduct a vaccination program, with only 617,239 health workers participating in the campaign.

“I seriously doubt if these 617,239 can vaccinate 70 million Filipinos although, of course, these will not be done simultaneously. As we all know, we have a very low vaccination rate,” Gordon said at the Senate hearing on Friday convening as the committee of the whole.

The senator also questioned why the DOH was counting on contact tracers, barangay health workers and social workers for vaccine distribution.

“Social workers, aren’t they the ones providing psychosocial support, yet you will use them for vaccination?” he said.

“I will file a bill on Monday that during times of emergency or even [when] there is no crisis, we should train vaccinators like the dentists, veterinarians, medical technologists [and others] with medical background,” Gordon added.

Distrust

A number of health workers themselves have reservations about being inoculated, although majority are in favor of getting a vaccine, according to separate surveys conducted by the DOH and the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (PSMID).

Of those that had reservations, they listed such concerns about vaccines being untested and possible side effects as the main deterrent.

Other reasons included distrust in the country where the vaccine is manufactured, “rushed” vaccine development, distrust in this country’s immunization program and concern over the vaccine’s components.

The DOH’s online survey, conducted on Dec. 29, 2020 and Dec. 30, 2020, among 1,245 health workers, showed 63.29 percent favoring vaccination and 8.27 percent saying they were “unlikely to be vaccinated.”

Among the respondents who didn’t want to be vaccinated, 61 percent said they believed the vaccines were “not thoroughly studied,” and 20 percent were concerned about side effects.

The PSMID’s poll, conducted from Dec. 30, 2020, to Jan 8, 2021, among 93 health workers, showed 91 percent were willing to be vaccinated and 3 percent opposed, many of them expressing concern about possible side effects.

Professor Nina Castillo-Carandang of the University of the Philippines Manila said the results were encouraging but much work still needed to be done to counter vaccine hesitancy in the country.

The public wants “full transparency” and not “excuses and half-truths” from Malacañang about the government’s apparent partiality for the COVID-19 vaccine of Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech, Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite said on Saturday.

“Things will have more clarity if they will truthfully answer the questions and apprehensions of the people,” Gaite said. “What the public wants is full transparency but all we get from the Palace are excuses and half-truths.”

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque earlier said Filipinos should not be choosy if they wished to avail themselves of the government’s vaccination services.

He also called those preferring Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, which has a high efficacy rate of 95 percent, as having “colonial mentality.”

“Roque is so fond of dismissing the public’s concern. It’s not too much for the government to make sure that public funds are used wisely on safe and effective vaccines, and for them to ensure that they are doing their jobs,” Gaite said. —WITH A REPORT FROM JULIE M. AURELIO