Coronavirus Special

Are Filipino officials using old age to avoid vaccination?

In a country with a high vaccine hesitancy, a high government official getting COVID-19 vaccine shots could make a change. Unfortunately, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and a number of his Cabinet officials are hiding in the cloak of old age to avoid getting inoculated. Could this be because they also do not trust Coronavac, the vaccine developed by Beijing-based biopharmaceutical company Sinovac, which efficacy is reported at 50.4%?

The Philippines started rolling-out on Monday, March 1, 2021, its long delayed vaccination against COVID-19. Despite being the second hardest hit country in Southeast Asia, the Philippines is the last country to secure vaccine supply. Complicating this is the high vaccine hesitancy noted between 40% to 60%. In Metro Manila, for instance, only 25 percent are willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 with 47% undecided and 28% firm of not getting inoculation. “Vaccine hesitancy” refers to the “delay in acceptance or refusal of safe vaccines despite the availability of vaccination services.”

How the Philippines can control COVID-19 without a vaccine

Is it possible to control the spread of Coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 in the Philippines even without a vaccine? Some says it is possible sans the government’s top government officials.

Apart from issuing problematic and mostly confusing COVID-19 policies, Filipino politicians and officials also fail to lead by example. In May, Philippine National Police (PNP) General Debold Sinas, for example, violated quarantine rules by holding a birthday party or mañanita. Despite the violations, he was absolved by President Rodrigo Duterte and instead appointed him as the Chief PNP.

The birthday mañanita of General Debold Sinas at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic,

COVID-19 response in the Philippines and Taiwan — a tale of two governments

Two things caught my attention in the Twitterverse today: President Tsai Ing-wen’s tweet thanking the recognition of Taiwan’s effort to control the spread of Coronavirus disease (COVID)-19, and the infographic from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) showing that the Philippines might be acquiring the COVID vaccine only by the second quarter of 2022 to 2023. Both reveal how poorly the Philippines is handling the pandemic. But, just how different really are the COVID-19 responses of Taiwan and the Philippines?

According to Forbes, President Tsai Ing-wen implemented a rigorous contact-tracing program that only seven people died in Taiwan due to COVID-19. The contact tracing started as early as January, the month when the Philippines is still in denial of the existence of the virus in the archipelago. Taiwan also implemented strict border controls and entry policy in the first quarter of 2020 while the Philippines was, in the same period, still welcoming with open arms foreigners especially those coming from Wuhan and the mainland China.

Innovative responses to food security threats under Covid-19

One of the problems highlighted, if not created, by the Coronavirus disease (COVID) -19 pandemic is food insecurity or the lack of access to a sufficient, affordable and nutritious food. The pandemic disrupted the economy and caused unemployment which in turn affected the purchasing power of the people. Further, the community quarantines also affected the transportation systems that the delivery of food supplies from the farms to the consumers were cut or, if not, diverted to areas where local governments are not strict.

The Philippine Covid-19 Response

One of the governments with the most interesting way of handling the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic is the Philippines. While the world was already showing concern over the virus, the Philippines is still permitting flights from places like China noted to be the Ground Zero of the virus. When the number of cases started to multiply, it was only then that the government acted. By March 2020, travel bans were imposed and this was eventually followed by the lockdown couched as “community quarantine”.

So, what makes the Phillipine Covid response interesting? What are the characteristics of the Duterte Administration’s efforts in responding to the current pandemic?