By Mario Casayuran
Sen. Richard J. Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, asked yesterday the public to focus on the real issues and the accountabilities of the personalities who pushed for the procurement of Dengvaxia, a dengue vaccine, and roll out of the new vaccine which was still half-baked at that time.
Gordon said people should focus on the real issues and not to be swayed by public relations (PR) tactics employed by Sanofi Pasteur, the French manufacturer of the dengue vaccine, of provoking arguments between doctors and government agencies to sway attention from their own liability.
The Gordon committee hearing resumes its public inquiry on the Dengvaxia controversy early this afternoon.
“Focus on the criminals who made Dengvaxia happen here, criminals in procurement, those who are conflicted. The fight is against the criminals,’’ Gordon said.
These criminals, according to Gordon, engaged in mass vaccination when it was not ready yet.
“They stampeded everybody to approve it,’’ he added.
Gordon did not mention the identities of the “criminals.’’
“This big corporation (Sanofi Pasteur) has so much money that they can manipulate issues. They managed to flip it so doctors fight against doctors, agency against agency. Sanofi’s PR people have managed to make it a fight between doctors. That is not the fight we are talking about. I caution everybody to focus on the investigation and punish the right people,” he added.
