Best vaccine is the one available – regardless of brand

In a time when there is a need for more responsible journalism to ensure proper medical advice is shared with the public to fight the pandemic, the opinions of Solita Monsod and Randy David published on May 22 and 23, respectively, reek of dangerous political opportunism on spinning lies regarding vaccination that could ultimately endanger public health.

Don’t mistake me — we all have ample reasons to distrust the Duterte administration. Its horrible human rights record, infantile international diplomacy, and amateurish conduct of public information within its own government are well known. But it needs to be said that the global health consensus on vaccination has to be followed — the vaccine that will end this pandemic is the vaccine that is readily available for you, regardless of brand.

Monsod and David are plainly wrong—choosing a vaccine brand will not make the vaccination effort in the country more effective or humane. Their “consumerist” perspective based on the false idea that vaccine preference has an outcome on medical efficacy does not grasp the fact that the most pressing issue in the world with COVID-19 vaccines right now is the problem of adequate supply—the world simply does not have enough.

With India—the world’s biggest producer of vaccines—currently in a pandemic tailspin, global vaccine supply will further shrink as India has already imposed strict control on COVID-19 vaccine exportation. Furthermore, more than 70 percent of available vaccines are in the possession of only 10 highly developed countries, while the rest of the world struggles to get its hands on the remaining vaccine “scraps” from the table of rich countries. This vaccine situation is the ultimate demonstration of inequality in the world, and by calling for people to be allowed to choose the brand, Monsod and David are simply going to worsen this inequality.

DR. CLOVER DEL MUNDO-BARNES
Pasig City [email protected]