MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has given its first Covid-19 vaccine to Philippine General Hospital (PGH) Director Dr. Gerardo “Gap” Legaspi.
Legaspi received the vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech on Monday at the PGH.
PGH nurse Chareluck Santos administered the vaccine to Legaspi.
Other government officials who were also inoculated with Sinovac’s vaccine, CoronaVac, include Food and Drug Administration Director General Eric Domingo, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Benhur Abalos, and National Task Force against Covid-19 deputy implementer Vince Dizon.
In a briefing, Legaspi noted that his decision to get the vaccines was based on “nothing else but science.”
“Nakadesisyon po tayo sa Sinovac base sa siyensya. Sinabi ko po sa town hall, alisin natin ang ating view sa vaccine, hiwalay sa pulitika, hiwala sa partido, hiwalay sa administrasyon, hiwalay sa paniniwala kundi batay sa siyensya na malinaw,” Legaspi said, recalling a town hall meeting attended by PGH’s health workers.
(We decided on Sinovac based on science. I told the town hall meeting, let’s remove our view on the vaccine, separate from politics, party, administration, whatever belief. Let’s base it on science that is clear.)
Legaspi expressed confidence that FDA’s Domingo and the vaccine expert panel will not approve a vaccine that is not safe.
“Hindi po ganon kaganda sa pananaw ng karamihan pero kapag sinuri ninyo nang mas malalim, maiintindihan po ninyo bakit ako ang una nag-volunteer magpabakuna,” Legaspi said.
(It may not be good in a lot of people’s opinion but if you examine it deeper, you will understand why I volunteered to be first to get vaccinated.)
“Katulad po ng sinabi ko, ang akin pong pananaw ay hango sa aking paniniwala sa datos at walang ibang basehan po,” he went on.
(Just like what I said, my view is based on data and nothing more.)
The Philippines rolled out its vaccination program after receiving 600,000 doses of Sinovac’s vaccine from the Chinese government.
A million more doses are expected to arrive this month, a representative of Sinovac Biotech said.