By Karen Lema
MANILA, Jan 28 (Reuters) - According to one rumour
circulating in the Philippines, the coronavirus vaccine will
allow President Rodrigo Duterte to kill people at the push of a
button.
Elsewhere in the country of 108 million, memories of a
dengue vaccine that has been banned locally are putting people
off the idea of immunisation even before the campaign begins.
"Many kids got sick after receiving that vaccine,"
62-year-old Crisanta Alipio said of the ill-fated vaccine
against dengue, a mosquito-borne disease that can be deadly.
She said she was afraid of the novel coronavirus but even
more afraid of vaccination.
The Philippines is due to start immunisations next month
despite suffering Southeast Asia's second-worst outbreak of the
coronavirus with more than half a million infections and over
10,000 deaths.
But officials acknowledge they have an uphill struggle to
persuade many people to take it, on top of the logistical
difficulties in reaching 2,000 inhabited islands with a
precarious health system in the Southeast Asian archipelago.
"Messaging has to be very concrete and evidence based to
encourage people to receive the vaccines," Health Ministry
under-secretary Rosario Vergeire told Reuters.
"We are assuring Filipinos that whatever vaccines that will
be brought in and provided will go through a stringent process
of regulation."
DENGVAXIA SCARE
Confidence in vaccines was knocked by controversy over
French company Sanofi's Dengvaxia.
Rolled out rapidly in 2016 to more than 800,000 children to
protect them from dengue - it was banned after its maker said it
could worsen the disease in people who had not previously been
exposed to the infection.
That led to two congressional enquiries and more than 100
criminal cases that linked child deaths to the anti-dengue shot
- though such links have never been proved.
Sanofi has repeatedly said Dengvaxia is safe and effective
and the vaccine has been approved for use by the United States
and European Union.
After that episode, the Philippines fell from one of the top
10 countries for confidence in vaccines to no higher than 70th
place. The number of children who were fully vaccinated fell
from 85% in 2010 to 69% in 2019.
To address the fears, health workers would hold town hall
and online meetings and be given special training on how to
answer questions, said Carlito Galvez, a former army general
running the anti-COVID-19 campaign, told the Senate.
The aim is to inoculate 70 million adults this year.
'BIG PROBLEM'
In parts of the southern Philippines, the big fear is of a
state-sponsored death campaign - not completely far-fetched in a
country where Duterte's drug war has left nearly 6,000 thousand
dead since he took office in 2016.
Remote southern regions are the scene of both communist and
Islamist insurgencies.
"Some of the information shared on Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and text
messages said the COVID-19 vaccine contained a microchip which
can be controlled remotely by President Duterte, and once he
pushes a button, the person who received the vaccine will die,"
said Nasser Alimoda, a government doctor in Lanao del Sur
province.
Everywhere, there is concern over the specific vaccines that
the Philippines plans to use too - particularly over Chinese
company Sinovac Biotech's vaccine, for which one study showed
effectiveness of little over 50%, though another gave it over
91%.
One opinion poll showed fewer than a third of Filipinos were
willing to get inoculated against coronavirus.
"Vaccination programmes will go to waste if people refuse to
get the shots," a former health minister, Esperanza Cabral, told
Reuters.
Apasrah Mapupuno, the head of the government's Lanao del Sur
health team, said she had asked dozens of health workers and
others if they would roll up their sleeves for a COVID-19
vaccines.
Not one said 'yes'.
"That is the big problem," Mapupuno said. "How can the
health workers convince the community to get vaccinated if they
themselves are not sold on COVID-19 vaccines?"
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Less than a third of Filipinos open to COVID-19 shots - survey
Duterte defends purchase of Chinese COVID-19
vaccine seeks 148 mln COVID-19 shots this year for 2/3 of
population Immunization Coverage in the Philippines, 2015-2020 https://tmsnrt.rs/3iOntCr
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(Editing by Matthew Tostevin, Robert Birsel)