THAT story about some Cabinet men and members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) having themselves inoculated against COVID-19, using vaccines donated by China, has refused to die down, as various officials have come up with unexpected details about the case.
We have noted that there are at least two points that must be looked into. First is the use of vaccines not yet approved by our own Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – a violation of law. Second is the use of the donated vaccine by a select group to protect themselves – despite official government policy that the country’s health workers, along with the poor and vulnerable, should be the first to get vaccinated.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, chairman of the National Task Force (NTF) on COVID-19, has now said the vaccines in question had actually been smuggled into the country – another violation of law.
When it was pointed out that the health workers who vaccinated the PSG men could be charged with administering a vaccine without FDA approval, the PSG chief said the men actually vaccinated themselves.
With so many details coming out from various sources in the government – some reports contradicting other reports – with no one apparently on top of the whole situation, the Senate said it will convene as a Committee of the Whole to look into the entire government vaccination program.
