SEN. Risa Hontiveros yesterday said she will push for the punishment of individuals responsible for COVID-19 vaccines that reached expiration without having been used.
Hontiveros made the statement when asked what amendments she would like to introduce to Republic Act No. 11525 or the COVID-19 Vaccination Program Act of 2021, following the Senate leadership’s proposal to amend the law to widen the public’s access to COVID-19 vaccines.
The vaccination program will be nullified after the state of calamity, which was declared by the former administration because of the COVID pandemic, ends next month.
“When it comes to updating the Vaccination Program Act, we can add that those found to cause vaccine wastage be held liable. At present, RA 11525 punishes faking of vaccination cards. We can add that portion when they waste vaccines,” Hontiveros said in Filipino.
Some P5.1 billion worth of COVID-19 vaccine doses procured by the private sector have expired.
Health Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire earlier said the COVAX Facility has committed to replace all expired and expiring COVID-19 vaccines, including those bought by the private sector and local government units.
Hontiveros said while replacement is good, someone should still be held liable for allowing the doses to expire. She said the Senate should conduct an investigation on the matter, even if the vaccines are replaced, because there were people who have been negligent and have wasted resources for the national vaccination program.
Meanwhile, a former special adviser for the National Task Force Against COVID-19 supported a redefinition of a “fully vaccinated” individual.
Dr. Ted Herbosa, in a briefing, said there is nothing wrong with including an additional dose to the two primary series of COVID-19 vaccines, just like other types of jabs.
“Many existing vaccines really require three doses, such as polio, hepatitis, and MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella). Most of the time, at the start, we really don’t know yet the required number of doses that can be considered as fully vaccinated,” said Herbosa.
“This is why I fully support the proposal to make the definition of fully vaccinated as three doses,” he added.
Earlier, the Department of Health said it plans to push for the redefinition of the “fully vaccinated” by adding the booster shot to the first two primary doses series.
As of August 8, only 16.6 million individuals have had booster shots out of the 71.9 million fully-vaccinated individuals.
Herbosa said a redefinition will also help convince those who prefer to wait for “newer generations” of COVID-19 vaccines to instead get their booster shots as soon as possible.
“It is our advise to the people to still get the existing vaccines as they can still offer partial protection, which is better than nothing. If you wait for the newer ones, you might get hit with the newer variants,” said Herbosa. — With Gerard Naval
