Case of PSG getting unregistered COVID-19 vaccines still pending in FDA — Domingo

Several months after the incident, the case of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) members getting inoculated with unregistered COVID-19 vaccines remains pending before the Food and Drug Administration as no information was provided for the investigation, FDA director general Eric Domingo said Tuesday.

“Hanggang ngayon, pending case pa po ‘yan. Wala po talagang sumasagot sa amin e pati po sa [Department of Health]. So nagtatanong din po ang Department of Health pero wala kaming makuhang information,” Domingo said in an interview on Dobol B TV.

(Until now, it is a pending case. No one is answering our queries even the Department of Health is asking, but we cannot get any information.)

The questions on PSG members getting inoculated with still unregistered China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine floated anew after President Rodrigo Duterte got his first shot of the same brand on Monday night.

In December last year, Duterte spilled the beans about members of the Presidential Security Group who were inoculated with Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine.

PSG commander Brigadier General Jesus Durante III later confirmed the President’s information, saying that the security group members inoculated themselves with Sinopharm.

It was only in February this year that the FDA granted compassionate use permit for 10,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine for the use of PSG members.

The same compassionate permit was used for Duterte’s inoculation, Domingo said.

A compassionate use permit, however, only allows for legal administration of COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines and is not tantamount to the FDA endorsing the product’s safety and efficacy.

In January, Domingo said the investigation on PSG’s vaccination has already hit a blank wall. — RSJ, GMA News