Rumors and fears are hampering the Philippine plan for driving a coronavirus vaccine

MANILA – According to one rumor circulating in the Philippines, the coronavirus vaccine will allow President Rodrigo Duterte to kill people at the push of a button.

Elsewhere in the country of 108 million, reminders of a locally banned dengue vaccine are putting people off the idea of ​​a vaccine even before the campaign begins.

“Many children became ill after receiving that vaccine,” said Crisanta Alipio, 62, of the abusive vaccine against dengue, a mosquito-borne disease that can be fatal.

She said she was scared of the coronavirus novel but is more scared of the vaccine.

The Philippines is expected to begin vaccination next month despite suffering Southeast Asia’s second-worst outbreak of coronavirus with more than half a million infections and more than 10,000 deaths.

But officials acknowledge that they have an uphill struggle to force large numbers of people in, as well as the supply problems of reaching 2,000 islands with a fragile health system in Southeast Asian islands. .

“Messages need to be very concrete and evidence-based to encourage people to get the vaccines,” said Under-Secretary of State for Health Rosario Vergeire.

“We assure Filipinos that whatever vaccine is introduced and administered will go through a strict regulatory process.”

Confidence in vaccines has been eroded by controversy over Dengvaxia, the French company Sanofi.

It was quickly spread in 2016 to more than 800,000 children to protect them from dengue – it was banned after its manufacturer said it could make the disease worse in people who had not been vaccinated. previous exposure to the disease.

That led to two conference studies and more than 100 criminal cases linking child deaths to the anti-dengue picture – although such links have never been proven.

Sanofi has reiterated that Dengvaxia is safe and effective and the vaccine has been approved for use by the United States and the European Union.

After that program, the Philippines fell from one of the top 10 countries for confidence in vaccines to a place no higher than the 70th. The number of children vaccinated fell from 85% in 2010 to 69% in 2019.

To address the fears, health workers would hold town hall and meetings online and receive specialized training on how to answer questions, said Carlito Galvez, former senior a general in the army who ran the campaign against COVID-19, to the Senate.

The goal is to move 70 million adults this year.

In parts of the southern Philippines, a state-backed death campaign – not entirely far away in a country where the Duterte drug war has left nearly 6,000 miles dead since it began in 2016.

Remote southern regions are the scene of both communist and Islamist.

“Some of the information shared on Facebook and text messages said that the COVID-19 vaccine contains a microchip that can control President Duterte, and once At the push of a button, the vaccine recipient dies, ”said Nasser Alimoda, a government doctor in Lanao del Sur.

Everywhere, there are concerns about the specific vaccines the Philippines plans to use as well – especially over the Chinese vaccine company Sinovac Biotech, where one study showed efficacy of just over 50%, although one another over 91% of it.

One poll showed that less than a third of Filipinos were willing to go against coronavirus.

“Vaccination programs will go to waste if people refuse to have the views,” said former health minister Esperanza Cabral.

Apasrah Mapupuno, head of the government’s Lanao del Sur health team, said she had asked dozens of health workers and others if they would roll up their sleeves for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Nobody said ‘yes.’

“That’s the big problem,” Mapupuno said. “How can health workers persuade the community to get vaccinated if they do not sell COVID-19 vaccines themselves?”