Locsin hits critics: No gov't would let its people take a defective vaccine

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has slammed critics questioning the efficacy of available COVID-19 vaccines, saying no government will allow a "defective" dose developed in their own country to be injected on its people.

In a virtual interview with former diplomatic reporter Malou Talosig-Bartolome on Saturday, Locsin argued that countries thrive not solely on military power but,  more importantly on credibility, and distributing a faulty vaccine will make them lose their people's trust for centuries.

"No aspiring great power will ever, ever distribute a vaccine that they do not believe sincerely is the best. Because if they did that and it failed out there, the reputation will be destroyed for the next two, three centuries," he said.

"The proof of that is that almost every vaccine developed by the great power is immediately deployed on their armed forces. Do you think that anybody is so stupid as to inject their own armed forces with a defective vaccine? We can expect a coup d'etat," he added.

This is the reason, Locsin said, that critics should not doubt the efficacy of any vaccine, regardless of what country it came from.

"You hear people who are disgruntled with the government, 'That vaccine is inferior!' Come on, grow up. These vaccines are as good as they can get," he said.

"You take your risk. Pfizer for a while, there was a little side effect here but it's gone. It's really criminally irresponsible to put down any of the vaccines because that's really unbelievable," he added.

Locsin earlier said that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will give his best try to help the Philippines get back into the Pfizer vaccine deal, even just a fraction of the 10 million doses.

This was after Health Secretary Francisco Duque III supposedly failed in submitting the required Confidential Disclosure Agreement (CDA) on time, which Senator Panfilo Lacson said cost the Philippines the delivery of 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine as early as January next year.

Locsin, in the interview, said he does not want to delve on the "bungled" Pfizer deal anymore, as this would only make government critics "happy."

"If you talk about it, the people who wish our country ill, the people who wish our people ill because they hate the government, they'd be so happy," he said.

"Well I don't want to make them happy, I want them to repeat the experience they had in the last two elections, another defeat," he added.

Duque, in defending himself, earlier said the Department of Health cannot sign the CDA on behalf of the national government, prompting him, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. to sign the CDA separately.

“When you go through a process, you cannot just be hurrying up things just like that. You have to be prudent and cautious especially because you are talking about a novel vaccine,” Duque said in a television interview on Thursday.

President Rodrigo Duterte also sees "no major lapse" on the part of Duque amid allegations thrown at him, although he asked the health secretary to explain his side in public, according to his spokesperson Harry Roque. —LBG, GMA News