Can the Vaccine Save 2021?

By the time you read this, more than 5,000 cases will have already been added to the total count of positive COVID-19 cases in the Philippines¹.

This pandemic is far from over—the coronavirus refuses to be left behind in 2020. In January 2021, we detected the first case of a COVID variant in the country. By the time I write this (which is March 24), there’s already a new surge with our infection count nearly quadrupling the number of that on March 1.

At current, the numbers we face along with the heavy strain this puts on businesses and industries are extremely worrying. The increasing dichotomy between saving lives and saving the economy is also a hot topic between economists, medical experts and policy-makers alike.

So aside from cancelling your travel plans and practicing social distancing, is there anything else you can do to ensure the two most crucial things: 1) that we don’t get infected, and 2) that we expedite the process of going back to normal?

Hint: The answer is yes.

And it’s called a vaccine.

Before we delve deeper, it is appropriate that I disclaim that I am no medical expert nor am I going to advise you on which vaccine is the most effective, because as it stands, these are all very new developments and the efficacy of the vaccines run on a case-to-case basis. What I will do, however, is relay information on the status of vaccines in the country from my own research and give my personal opinion on the feasibility of the government’s plan to have 70 million Filipino adults (or 65% of the population) vaccinated by the end of 2021.

With that said, let’s break down the status of vaccines in the Philippines. The Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the usage of four vaccines, namely: Pfizer-BioNTech (USA and Germany), AstraZeneca (United Kingdom), Sinovac (China), and Sputnik V (Russia).

On February 28, we received the 600,000 Sinovac doses donated by China. The vaccines have been rolled out in March and vaccinations have commenced. On March 4, we received 525,600 of Oxford-AstraZeneca donated by COVAX. At the moment, we have secured delivery of 1.125 million doses of Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines, and have recently entered into an agreement with Moderna who will provide us with 20 million vaccine doses sometime around late May to early June. We are also expecting the arrival of 117,00 Pfizer vaccines around April. In sum, we are expecting 21.242 million doses by the first half of the year.

Rest assured, these vaccines undergo a multi-stage process of tests for safety and effectiveness before they’re approved for public use. It is important to note—though it is more the exception rather than the rule—that no vaccine is 100% effective, and there are cases wherein you may not be protected by the vaccine.

So if it has a tendency to be impotent, why are we still investing in them? The answer is herd immunity, or the point wherein 50% to 90% of our population becomes immune to the vaccine. This is vital in curbing the spread of the virus and providing indirect protection to those who are not immune to the virus.

What’s worrying is that recent polls show that many Filipinos are opposed to getting vaccinated. The first cause of worry to most Filipinos is its safety². This may partly be due to the use of Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) on vaccines. In simpler terms, the EUA shortcuts the approval process on vaccines that are under the development phase to hasten their availability in times of crises. Still, although the process was shortened, the FDA ran a risk-based evaluation to ensure that rolling out the vaccines would be more beneficial than detrimental.

The second issue is the surrounding efficacy of the Sinovac. Of course, this comes with certain politicking regarding China and the Philippines, but it is quite alarming that some citizens refuse to be vaccinated with the Sinovac, whose effectiveness the FDA has already ensured.

The trickiest issue raised is the question of why the private sector is not allowed to purchase the vaccines directly from the pharmaceutical companies themselves. Through the amended Republic Act (RA) 11525 or the Covid-19 Vaccination Law, private companies actually can purchase vaccines, so long as they enter into a tripartite agreement along with the government and manufacturer.

So the question is, why is there a need for the government to butt in?

This is because the suppliers require indemnity. Going back to the issuance of EUA, because these vaccines have not undergone full trial, the suppliers need reassurance that they won’t be held liable for any problems with their product post-purchase. The government has prepared a countermeasure for that through the aforementioned law, which creates a PHP 500-million indemnity fund to compensate any individuals who suffer adverse effects from the vaccine.

On the other hand, some businesses have mentioned that certain conditions on the tripartite agreement state that 50 percent of the doses that businesses purchase would be donated to the government. Although this is still being investigated, this is highly disincentivizing for businesses to purchase vaccines.

On the whole, certain government policies as well as the issuance of EUA understandably may be a cause for worry, but empirical evidence from other countries has shown that getting vaccinated is far better than battling a virus with no protection.

As the Department of Health (DoH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have stated: “Millions of people around the world have received this vaccine, and evidence continues to show that the benefit of vaccination outweighs the risk of severe disease and death caused by Covid-19.”

With the limited supply of vaccines in the world, it is crucial that we make use of every last drop, or else we would have wasted millions in money and effort, and only lessened the potential of stifling the wave further. Vaccine illiteracy and political divisiveness only worsen the spread of the virus, and by extension, the living conditions of many Filipinos.

To successfully pull off the government’s immunization campaign, there is a need for cooperation and public trust from all stakeholders of the country. Of course, to do this, the government must step up—there must be transparency and corrective action between them and the healthcare system, private sector, LGUs, and the citizens to rebuild confidence in the vaccines. Anything less and we can say goodbye to going out for the rest of the year.

Under these trying times, one thing’s for sure: this pandemic is far from over, and the dream of going back to normal only grows farther if we don’t get vaccinated.


¹Based on the 7-day average (5,635) of COVID-19 cases from March 15 to 20, 2021
²Based on Octa survey conducted on January to February 2021; n = 1,200



This article is part of the CDC Advocacy campaign for Vaccine Literacy.