Government officials including Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr. were inoculated with China’s CoronaVac on Monday at the Philippine General Hospital to encourage the public to get vaccinated against the deadly COVID-19.
Galvez, chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19, shared how President Rodrigo Duterte ordered him to receive the shot to boost vaccine confidence of the public amid widespread fear on vaccination.
Galvez said he did not feel any pain from the vaccination and is hoping that there will not be much adverse effects from the Sinovac-developed vaccine, similar to the situation in Turkey.
“Five million sa Turkey. Nasabi ng Turkish ambassador, wala naman silang nakitang adverse effects (Five million [were vaccinated] in Turkey.
The Turkish ambassador said they have not seen any adverse effects),” Galvez shared. Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director General Dr. Eric Domingo was administered with the Chinese vaccine at the PGH.
“Kahit ang injection site ay hindi naman masakit. Walang nararamdaman na soreness or systemic symptoms na parang lagnat or parang mabigat ang katawan (Even the vaccination site was not painful. I did not feel any soreness and systemic symptoms like fever or body pain),” Domingo revealed in the Laging Handa briefing.
As a physician at the PGH, he is also wants to show his colleagues that he is willing to get vaccinated.
“Ako kasi ay low-risk, walang allergies or ibang karamdaman kaya 15 minutes lang ang monitoring sa akin. Tapos tsinek nila ang BP ko, tiningnan kung may lagnat. Wala naman (I am low-risk, have no allergies or other disease, that is why the monitoring only took 15 minutes. They also checked my BP and if I have fever, there was none),” he elaborated.
Meanwhile, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairperson Benhur Abalos revealed that the death of his mother from COVID-19 also pushed him to get inoculated. “Ako po ay talagang nagboluntaryo ngayon dahil sa nangyari sa pamilya ko noong nakaraang buwan. Sana hindi na maranasan ng iba ang naranasan namin (I really volunteered because of what happened to my family the previous month. I hope others will not have to go through our experience),” he stated. – Report from Allan Francisco
