Malacañang considered a compassionate use license for President Duterte’s Sinopharm shots.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on Thursday said that Malacañang was studying whether President Rodrigo Duterte can be vaccinated against COVID-19 using China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine under the compassionate use license issued by the country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Earlier, the Food and Drug Administration issued a compassionate use license for 10,000 Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine doses meant for the Presidential Security Group (PSG) members.
In a Palace briefing, Roque said that Malacañang was being studied whether the compassionate use license can be a basis for President Duterte — who was the chief-of-staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) — to get the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine.
“Pinag-aaralan if the compassionate use license can be a basis for the President who is after all the chief-of-staff of the Armed Forces of the Philipines kung p’wede siyang pumasok doon sa compassionate use clause ng Sinopharm,” Roque said.
For Roque, President Duterte should be allowed to use China’s Sinopharm vaccine under the compassionate use license.
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Earlier, President Duterte expressed a preference for China’s Sinopharm brand even though Sinopharm had yet to secure an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration.
However, Roque said that President Duterte can still opt for the COVID-19 vaccine of Chinese drugmaker Sinovac even though it wasn’t recommended for senior citizens.
Meanwhile, Roque announced that 600,000 Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine doses were expected to arrive in the country on February 28, 2021.
President Duterte was expected to be among the first to get inoculated against COVID-19 in order to boost vaccine confidence among Filipinos.
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