FORMER Health Secretary Janette L. Garin assailed Sen. Richard J. Gordon “for being misinformed” about the P3.5-billion antidengue vaccination project that benefitted about 500,000 schoolchildren.
“What I heard is his office was misinformed [about the dengue vaccination]. I understand, of course, but it should be corrected. It should be constructive criticism and be based on scientific and reliable data,” Garin told reporters.
Garin answered allegations made by Gordon during last week’s Department of Health budget hearing, during which the senator threatened to open a Senate investigation about the dengue vaccine. He gave remarks about corruption and even compared the student-beneficiaries to “guinea pigs”.
“If you are talking about corruption on the dengue vaccine [acquisition]…[the supplier is] a multinational company, any cloud lang diyan na may corruption, lahat sila tanggal sa trabaho. Global sila. Ganyan katindi [ang] compliance nila,” Garin said.
“It’s unfair for them that people are throwing [corruption] accusations. We got the lowest price among all the countries. It’s also because of Apec [Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation] and nag-insist tayo,” Garin added.
When asked about the “guinea pig” remark, Garin said Gordon may have mixed past issues to the present that paved way for his misconceptions to the current topic.
“There was really an experiment that was done [but] not during my time. The administrations before me claimed that they have discovered a medicine for dengue. But it was not done scientifically,” Garin said. “Iyong sinasabing gamot is an alleged ‘miracle drug’, which was not true and was not allowed by the FDA [Food and Drug Administration]. Kasi iyon ang totoo…na gumamit sila ng guinea pigs. Na-mix ang information.
“For me, as a doctor, my conscience can’t stand it [using people as guinea pigs],” Garin said.