Gatchalian: Brand agnostic policy to create notion of uncertainty among public

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said Tuesday the Department of Health’s brand agnostic policy will not build the public's vaccine confidence and will only create a notion of uncertainty in the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program.

“Personally, it will not help overcoming fear. It will aggravate fear among our constituents. One of the things that helps comfort them is knowing what type of vaccine that they will be injected with,” Gatchalian said in an ANC interview.

The lawmaker cited his personal interviews with residents of Valenzuela City, whom he said, are doing their personal research about COVID-19 vaccines.

“They know about vaccine passports, the efficacy rates, they do their own homework and depriving them of the brand in advance will create this notion of uncertainty and that will not help them in terms of building confidence,” he said.

Last week, the DOH announced the brand agnostic policy which ordered the local government units not to announce the COVID-19 brands that will be used during a certain vaccination schedule.

The lawmaker also noted the recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey which showed that only 32% of Filipinos are willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The public’s fear of vaccine is the biggest problem that the government must address, he said.

Gatchalian then suggested the country’s top officials to promote vaccination to the Filipinos.

“My simple strategy is that for the leaders to come out and promote vaccination—the top leaders the President, Vice President, Senate President, even the Speaker of the House, and even media personalities to go out and promote,” he said.

“People follow their leaders and people trust their leaders. And if they see their leaders are getting vaccinated and promoting vaccination, people will follow. At this time, the biggest hurdle that we have to overcome is fear of vaccines,” he added.

A similar suggestion was also floated by Senator Joel Villanueva last week, saying President Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Leni Robredo should make an infomercial about COVID-19 vaccines together.

In the same interview, Gatchalian suggested allowing the vaccination of the general public as early as June and give the COVID-19 vaccines to those who are willing to speed up the vaccine rollout.

So far, the Philippine government has administered a total of 4,097,425 COVID-19 vaccine doses nationwide as of May 22.

An average of 162,513 COVID-19 jabs were administered daily, according to the National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19.

The Philippines is eyeing the inoculation of 50 to 70 million individuals this year to achieve herd immunity.—AOL, GMA News