Scientists, doctors, listen up.
President Rodrigo Duterte is offering a PHP10 million (US$196,853) reward to any Filipino who can come up with a vaccine against COVID-19, his spokesman Harry Roque said in a virtual presser today.
“First of all, because COVID-19 is public enemy [number one] not just here in the Philippines but that of the entire world, the president wants to announce that he will give a reward of PHP10 million to any Filipino who can discover the vaccine against COVID-19,” Roque said.
In addition to that, Duterte wants to give a grant to the state university, the University of the Philippines (UP), and to its hospital, the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), so that both institutions could develop a vaccine.
“The president would also like to announce that he will give a substantial grant to UP and UP-PGH so that they could develop a vaccine against COVID-19,” Roque added.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the United States’ National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said developing a vaccine against the disease could take a year to 18 months, but many scientists have said that it was an overly optimistic estimate. Still, various companies and organizations have already started working on vaccines, with one, developed by Oxford University researchers, currently being tested in England which could supposedly be used within this year.
However, Duterte’s government might have a tough time convincing Filipinos to use a vaccine, due in part to the country’s experience with the controversial anti-dengue vax Dengvaxia.
Read: Justice dep’t indicts former health minister in connection with Dengvaxia controversy
Dengvaxia was included in the government’s dengue vaccination program which was launched in 2016 shortly before President Benigno Aquino III’s term ended and at least 800,000 school children were immunized with it.
In November 2017, Sanofi Pasteur, the manufacturer of Dengvaxia, issued an advisory to say that the vaccine posed a risk for patients who have not been infected by the dengue virus before immunization. However, it also said that there were no confirmed deaths caused by the vaccine.
Sanofi’s advisory led Public Attorneys Office chief Persida Acosta, a lawyer, to allege that the vaccine has caused the deaths of at least 113 victims but said that the total number could reach as high as 600.
However, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said there was no established link between Dengvaxia and the death of the supposed victims. Duque has even said Acosta’s baseless accusations against immunization have led to the rise of measles cases because spooked parents refused to have their children immunized.
