China’s “vaccine diplomacy” has failed to live up to expectations, as the effectiveness of exported vaccines has been increasingly questioned and indirectly “confirmed” by mainland Chinese media. CNN reported the day before yesterday that 126 members of the Philippine Presidential Security Guard (PSG) had contracted Wuhan pneumonia, forcing President Rodrigo Duterte to postpone his weekly public speeches. Many media outlets in mainland China, as well as Hong Kong’s “Zuo Bao” newspaper, have also republished the report. However, some netizens cited a report by China News Network at the end of December last year that members of the Philippine Presidential Security Guard had been vaccinated with a vaccine developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group. The most bizarre thing is that the Philippine authorities later claimed that the presidential guard was injected with a smuggled vaccine that had not been approved for emergency use at the time.
According to a report in Apple Daily today, 126 members of the Philippine Presidential Guard were infected with the disease because they had been given a smuggled “Sinopharm” vaccine last year. In a televised interview, Brig. Gen. Jesus Durante III, commander of the Philippine Presidential Security Guard, said that 126 members of the Presidential Security Guard had tested positive for the New Coronavirus, with 45 active cases, Apple Daily said, citing a report published by CNN the day before. According to Durante, the PSG members who tested positive did not have direct contact with Duterte, and most of them are janitors at the presidential gates and various buildings, and currently do not have any adverse symptoms. He also made a point of stressing, “Please be assured that the president is safe and healthy.”
Apple Daily said the report did not account for whether the members of the Philippine Presidential Security Guard had been vaccinated. However, a netizen cited a CNN report from Manila dated Dec. 28 last year that said members of the Philippine Presidential Security Guard had been vaccinated with the inactivated vaccine developed by Sinopharm and were the first in the country’s armed forces to receive the vaccine.
Most outrageously, the Manila Times later reported that the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it had not yet approved the emergency use of the vaccine. Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana even admitted that the Chinese vaccine given to PSG was “smuggled” without the government’s approval and that he had no prior knowledge of it. The Philippine Congress has launched an investigation into the incident and requested that the head of PSG be summoned.
Apple Daily said the Philippines has been slower to vaccinate than its Southeast Asian neighbors, and a new wave of outbreaks has recently erupted, leading to a continuing economic recession. Duterte announced earlier that he would allow private companies to import the new crown pneumonia vaccine on their own, speeding up domestic vaccination while providing a boost to the Philippine economy’s reboot.
According to a New Headlines report today, Jesus Durante III, commander of the Philippine Presidential Personal Protection Detail (PSG), recently said that 126 members of the team have recently been infected with the New Coronavirus and 45 of them have yet to recover, but the team has not had direct or close contact with President Rodrigo Duterte recently.
According to Philippine News Agency sources, Duterte said in an interview on Wednesday (7) local time that there were 126 cases in the PSG team recently, most of whom recovered during quarantine, thus bringing the current number of unrecovered cases down to 45. He said the team was exposed to the risk of infection because of staffing that required contact with the local population. “At the very least, the infected members of the PSG have not had any direct or close contact with the president, nor have they had any adverse symptoms.” Durand added in the statement, “The president is safe and healthy.”
It was reported that some of the PSG team was privately vaccinated late last year with a vaccine developed by Sinopharm, a subsidiary of the “China Pharmaceutical Group,” and it was not immediately clear if the cases included Sinopharm vaccine recipients.
The 75-year-old Duterte was originally scheduled to give a public speech on Wednesday, but presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the 7-day speech was canceled in light of the increasing number of infections in the Philippines and in consideration of the president’s personal safety and the well-being of his staff.
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