Vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. expressed his willingness to receive the first COVID-19 vaccine to arrive in the Philippines.
Vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. on Tuesday expressed willingness to receive the first COVID-19 vaccine to arrive in the Philippines, even if the said vaccine would be the one developed by China’s Sinovac.
In an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel, Galvez said that he would volunteer to be the first one to take whichever COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the country first in order to show the public that the vaccines they’re getting were safe.
When asked if he’s willing to be vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines from China’s Sinovac, he said “Opo, ganun po ang gagawin natin“, adding that they would show to the public that it’s really safe and the vaccine expert panel said that China’s Sinovac was among those that were safe.
In a recent Pulse Asia survey, it showed that nearly half of Filipinos didn’t want to be inoculated against COVID-19 because of safety concerns.
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When asked if health workers prioritized in the vaccination can choose which COVID-19 vaccines to receive, Galvez answered: “Puwede po kasi yan po, voluntary po yan. Meron po tayong voluntary consent. Pero inaadvise po namin na kung ano yung pinkaunang dumating ay iyon po ang puwede nating gamitin.”
Meanwhile, Galvez said that more or less 25,000 people were undergoing training to administer vaccines to Filipinos as the start of vaccination in the Philippines nears.
He also said that local government units — especially in the National Capital Region (NCR) — were already consolidating the lists of those who would participate in the vaccination.
The Philippine government had targeted to inoculate some 50 to 70 million Filipinos against COVID-19 in 2021.
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