A SENIOR lawmaker has urged the leadership of the House of Representatives to immediately pass the proposed “Bayanihan sa Bakuna” Act for faster procurement, distribution and administration of Covid-19 vaccines.
In an aide memoire to the House leadership titled “The Risk of the New Covid-19 Strain and Proposed Mitigation Strategies,” House Committee on Ways and Means chairman Joey Sarte Salceda said that government must prepare healthcare capacity for a possible surge in cases due to more infectious Covid-19 mutations.
According to Salceda, the immediate passage of House Bill (HB) 8285 when session resumes this month is important, as January may be the crucial window for preparing against a possible surge in cases.
“The virus has mutated in the United Kingdom; that’s normal, because viruses always mutate. At some point, it may even mutate domestically in the Philippines,” Salceda said. “Because we know it will happen, we must prepare for it.”
Salceda cited studies in the UK, which suggest that the new Covid-19 mutation could be 56-percent to 70-percent more infectious.
“Infectious simply means it spreads faster. There is no evidence that it is more lethal on a per-person basis. But the main risk is really getting the healthcare system overwhelmed. Because, even if the new strain itself is less serious, if you can’t treat people anymore because you are fully occupied, the risks escalate,” the lawmaker said.
“We have to vaccinate our health care workers early, so that they can save lives without risking their own. We need to prepare for surge capacity at the earliest sign of a real new surge. And we need to strictly enforce minimum health standards,” Salceda added.
Salceda filed HB 8285 on December 30, to expedite vaccine procurement and allow for the approval of vaccines already tested successfully on Filipinos abroad.
He also recommended the bill’s adoption, in connection with his call to the House leadership to help government vaccinate health care workers by January this year.
“Using the figures for the new mutation, this representation’s risks science team modeled potential case increases if the strain were ever to reach the country at this day, and found that health care capacity could be overwhelmed by February 2021, unless minimum health standards are strengthened,” Salceda wrote in his aide memoire.
“Actually, our nurses were among the first to receive the vaccines abroad. Vaccines are tested on specific ethnic or racial background because of variations in immune response along these lines. That need no longer exists if the vaccines have been tested on Filipinos abroad already. Vaccines administered successfully to our nurses in Canada and the UK should be leading candidates for procurement, because we already know they work on Filipinos,” Salceda commented.
Private sector
SALCEDA said the private sector should also be encouraged to procure vaccines, provided that they do not compete with the government’s efforts.
“The private sector is likely to procure at least some doses at faster speed than the public sector, as it is not bound to the budgeting, procurement, and administrative constraints that the public sector abides by,” he said.
Salceda said HB 8285 mandates the government to help the private sector procure, distribute and administer vaccines by liberalizing the grant of incentives for such efforts, and facilitating their applications to import such vaccines.
Salceda said minimum health standards should be strictly enforced.
“While quarantines that are severely economically paralyzing may not be sensible on a cost-benefit perspective at this point, the strict enforcement of minimum health standards will allow the economy to continue operating at prudent levels while keeping transmission under control. Strict mask-wearing alone is shown to reduce infections by between 70 percent to 100 percent. Minimum health standards such as mask-wearing, social distancing, and frequent hand-washing and sanitizing can slow if not near-totally blunt the impacts of the new strain of Covid-19 if these standards are faithfully observed,” added.
Counterfeit vaccine
MEANWHILE, House Deputy Speaker and Bagong Henerasyon Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy is urging authorities to prepare for the possible proliferation of counterfeit Covid-19 shots amid the limited supply of genuine vaccines.
Herrera said guarding against fake vaccine is part of the government’s duty to ensure public health and safety.
“As we await the arrival of the much-awaited COVID-19 vaccines, ensuring that vaccines are authentic could emerge as an important issue,” Herrera said.
The House leader warned that counterfeiters could capitalize on the opportunity given what she called “mismatch of Covid-19 vaccine supply and demand.”
Selling counterfeit vaccines is a criminal activity that poses serious risks to public health and safety, she said.
At the same time, Herrera urged the Department of Health and the Food and Drug Administration to ensure the availability of affordable, safe and effective vaccines for Filipinos.
The party-list lawmaker also called for proper distribution of Covid-19 vaccines once they become available in the country.
“Proper distribution means we have to follow the guidelines on which area and sectors that will be given Covid-19 shots first,” Herrera said.
The government earlier announced nearly 25 million Filipinos composed of frontline health workers, senior citizens, the poor and uniformed personnel will be among the first to receive the vaccine.
It added that areas with the highest number of Covid-19 cases will be a priority for the mass immunization program that is expected to happen within the first half of 2021.