MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday stuck to a tune he has repeatedly sung over the course of the coronavirus crisis: pinning his hopes on a possible vaccine and now erroneously claiming that it is already available and being sold.
In his weekly address, the president said the threat of the virus that has gripped the world and the nation hard is now less terrifying as he said China and America now have the vaccines.
"Andito na ang bakuna. It's being sold," Duterte claimed. "'Yung sa iba, I don't know [but] it could be not good to assume that there's a black market for that... China and Pfizer of America, meron na sila so hindi na talaga nakatatakot ang COVID."
(The vaccine is already here and it is being sold. The others, I don't know but it would not be good to assume that there is a black market for that. China and Pfizer of America already have it, so the COVID-19 is actually less scarier.)
The American pharmaceutical company, however, had said that while its vaccine candidate was found 90% effective in the Phase 3 of its clinical trials, it has yet to submit an emergency use authorization to the US Food and Drug Administration.
It has also said that its trials will continue to the final analysis of 164 virus patients for further data collection as well as to "characterize the vaccine candidate's performance against other study endpoints."
Trials for China's Sinovac, meanwhile, was halted in Brazil after regulators in the country cited an "adverse incident" involving a volunteer patient.
The company has applied to hold the same trials here in the Philippines, hurdling the initial stage of the screening by Food and Drug Administration officials.
Duterte in the same address told the public that government will borrow up to $300 million or P14.5 billion for the purchase of the vaccines, vowing to prioritize the most vulnerable to the disease as well as the marginalized.
Agence France-Presse has reported that Sinovac has stood by the safety of its vaccines, but this development, along with that of Pfizer's, only shows that Duterte's claim runs counter with the situation on the ground.
His envoy to Washington, Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez, had said too earlier today that possible vaccines from the US drugmaker could be in the country by early 2021 "at the latest."
Duterte in his previous speeches — even in his State of the Nation Address in July — repeatedly claimed that a vaccine is "just around the corner" as he sought to reassure Filipinos that government is on top of the ongoing health crisis.
The administration, however, has shunned calls for mass testing, with groups taking the petition to compel government before the Supreme Court, only to be struck down by the high tribunal.
In the past months, officials had changed course as well in managing the coronavirus crisis, from telling people to stay indoors to now encouraging more people to come out in a bid to revive the economy.
Government has since increased the capacities of business establishments, public transport, churches and hotels, as well as opening up major tourist destinations.
To date, Philippine coronavirus infections are at the brink of reaching 400,000 as of November 10, many months since the first infection was reported. COVID-19 has taken the lives of 7,661 Filipinos to date, while 361,919 were reported to have since recovered.
The country is 25th in the world in the most number of cases, and it is second in Southeast Asia, next only to Indonesia's more than 440,000.