Locsin pushes approval of Russian vaccine

Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Sunday urged the government’s pandemic response managers to approve Russian-made COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V. “Hey IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) …we’ve all seen all there is to see around the lining of our big bowels. Time to pull out, look around, smell the fresh air and do new look-see. Please approve Sputnik V,” Locsin said in a post on Twitter. “No need to see it first by visiting Russia. None of you speak Russian or know any advanced science. If advanced countries okay a vaccine it should be good to go in a country like ours,” he added. In a tweet last week, Locsin said he was “turning every stone” to get to the country the Russian-made COVID-19 vaccine. He said it was the vaccine he would “trust” his life to, citing a review in the medical journal The Lancet. —Tina G. Santos