Russia, China in lead as Philippines seeks deals for Covid-19 vaccines (Foreign Perspective)

[TomCADem]

It is interesting to see how other countries view the development of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. If you look at foreign news sources, no one is really questioning the efficacy or safety of the U.S. vaccines, which speaks well to the deliberate and cautious strategy of testing before even applying for preliminary approval. The focus of foreign news sources is on the logistics of distributing the vaccines. In contrast, it is interesting to see the skepticism regarding Russia's Sputnik vaccine for which approval was announced months ago.

This is why Trump's attempt to take a Putin like approach of announcing approvals for political effect would have been devastating. Sure it might provide an ego boost to Trump/Putin, but then everyone will regard the approval with skepticism. In contrast, with the FDA resisting pressure to approve vaccines before the election before stage 3 data was available, you have the international media taking the efficacy and data behind the U.S. vaccines as true, but focusing on the practical problems of distribution.

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3109729/russia-china-lead-philippines-seeks-deals-covid-19

One issue with the Pfizer vaccine is the challenge in importing it. Pfizer’s vaccine can only survive in deep-freeze temperatures of minus 70-80 degrees Celsius (minus 94-112 Fahrenheit). At the moment, the country has limited cold-storage facilities to handle the vaccines, but the Philippines’ Department of Health is exploring partnerships with the private sector to build more.

Under the government’s proposed 2021 budget, 2.5 billion pesos (US$51.5 million) has been set aside for vaccination procurement, although critics have deemed that an insufficient amount, as it would only be able to cover the vaccinations of five million Filipinos.

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While the Philippines is a US security treaty ally, President Rodrigo Duterte has, since taking office in 2016, sought closer economic ties with China and has also sought to elevate ties with Russia. Several months ago he said he would prefer to purchase vaccines from China and Russia because Western companies wanted a “cash advance” for orders.

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He said the Philippines would probably join final-stage human trials this year for Russia’s Covid-19 shot – the Sputnik V vaccine – which the developers claim has a 92 per cent efficacy rate, though scientists say more testing is needed to prove that the vaccine is safe and effective.