by Ven rebo Arigo
Doctors have appealed to the provincial administration’s critics and doubters not to confuse the people for whatever gain, which some observers say is more political than medical, at the expense of the vaccination rollout effort.
This comes following the attempts by some provincial administration critics who are attempting to make it appear the administration of Gov. Arthur Yap is mismanaging the vaccine rollout by insinuating that Bohol is not getting a share of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Last week, the Yap’s critics harped on the issue of Bohol being unable to receive a share of the said vaccine because the provincial government does not possess the required cold storage facility.
The Department of Health (DOH) knows Bohol is capable to receive the said vaccines due to the presence of an ultra-low temperature freezer installed at the Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH), which is a DOH hospital.
According to the reports coming from the Provincial Information and Media Relation (PRIMER) office, critics have chided the administration of Yap for its alleged inaction to procure a capable freezer that will be used to store the Pfizer vaccines.
The governor himself clarified the issue by saying that while the province has a cold storage facility that can be used for other types of vaccines, the GCGMH does have an ultra-low temperature freezer capable of storing the Pfizer vaccine.
Dr. Mutya Kismet Macuno, the medical center chief of the GCGMH, who has been working with the provincial government and Bohol Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF) since the start of the community quarantine due to Coronavirus disease (Covid), confirmed that her hospital has an ultra-low temperature freezer capable of storing the Pfizer vaccine.
The GCGMH is the biggest government hospital in Bohol, which is owned by the national government and supervised by the DOH.
“What’s real is that we are ready with the ultra-low [temperature] freezer in case it is needed,” Macuno said.
The freezer can store 422 liters or 30,000 vials of Pfizer vaccine, which need to be stored in a facility capable of maintaining temperature of as low as -80 degrees Celcius.
Dr. Cesar Tomas Lopez of the BIATF Medical Cluster and officer-in-charge of the Provincial Health Office (PHO) said the provincial government has its own cold storage facility capable of keeping other vaccines like the ones manufactured by China’s Sinovac and the United Kingdom’s AstraZeneca.
Lopez added that the GCGMH’s ultra-low temperature freezer can store Pfizer vaccine in the event Bohol gets its Pfizer vaccine allocation from the DOH and national Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF).
It was announced during the meeting of the Provincial and Regional Vaccination Operation Centers on Monday, May 17, 2021, that another huge batch of Sinovac vaccine was coming.
“Please, let us not confuse the people,” Macuno appealed.
She added that “the main challenge is to prepare everyone to be ready for any vaccine that comes and is available.”
“It is really hard if those who make confusing reports have other agenda,” Lopez said.
NOT FOR BOHOL
Top DOH and IATF officials said the initial batch of Pfizer vaccines that arrived in the country the other week were intended for the national Capital Region and nearby areas (NCR plus), and the localities of Cebu and Metro Davao.
The country’s vaccine czar, Sec. Carlito Galvez of the IATF, said that they “did not advise Bohol to procure deep freeze equipment to be able to avail of Pfizer vaccine.”
This is precisely because the DOH-supervised GCGMH already has the required cold storage to vaccines which require ultra-low temperature storage.
Moreover, most of the vaccines being m supplied by the national government through the DOH and IATF are Sinovac and AstraZeneca, which can be stored at the existing provincial cold storage facility.
In fact, Lopez said, all vaccines already received in Bohol were immediately stored in the province’s cold storage facility a few minutes after arrival from Cebu.
“The vaccine distribution is dependent on their [DOH-IATF] criteria. It is not dependent on anyone else and we respect that. We can only pray and are just being ready,” Macuno said.
NOT A “CENTER
OF GRAVITY”
“Bohol is not a center of [COVID-19] vaccine gravity for distribution of Pfizer vaccines. Deep freeze vaccines are (for now) only for NCR plus 6, Cebu City and Metro Davao,” Lopez said.
However, Bohol will still get its share of Pfizer vaccines.
Galvez said pharmaceutical giants like Zuellig and other third-party distributors of Pfizer in Cebu, can deliver the vaccine through “shipper boxes”, which can store 5,850 vaccines for days in deep freeze temperature through dry ice packing.
Macuno and Lopez said the provincial government, in partnership with the GCGMH, is well prepared to receive Pfizer vaccines as the ultra-low temperature freezer at the GCGMH is ready.
According to some reports the said freezer has been installed in the GCGMH since March 16, 2021.
NOT NEGLIGENT
The doctors are trying their best to respond to the health concerns of the Boholanos, Lopez said.
He said the BIATF, its medical and health cluster, including the Bohol Medical Society led by Dr. Jefferson Ong, College of Physicians headed by Dr. Kazan Baluyot, and Macuno regularly meet every Monday.
While the governor has the final say on matters involving the BIATF, Yap does not make all the decisions as the BIATF is a collegial body.
MAXIMIZE VACCINATION
Lopez said the focus of the vaccine rollout is to ensure the ease of administration of the available vaccine to Boholanos regardless of brand.
Macuno said the soonest one can get vaccinated, the sooner one can be safe from getting sick of Covid.
As of last week, Bohol remained number one in terms of vaccine rollout in Central Visayas.
The medical center chief of the GCGMH,appealed to the media to “help us inform [the people] that it [vaccines] is the only way we can win over this pandemic.”
“All the stories about vaccine reactions are blown to proportion. They are mostly mild and manageable. But COVID death is real,” Macuno said.
“INSULTING THE
DOCTORS, TOO”
Lopez appealed to the critics to “spare the people’s health” from politics.
The critics tirades are not just directed at the governor, but “is, in fact, insulting the medical doctors in Bohol” because having no Pfizer vaccine here for now is a “non-issue”, Lopez bared.
On Friday, May 21, 2021, Lopez himself checked and took pictures of the GCGMH ultra-cold storage to show to the media that the medical sector and government are not lying about the low-temperature freezer.
EXTRA-CAREFUL
MANAGEMENT
Doctors agreed that because such vaccine like Pfizer needs expert handling and management, a team from GCGMH will be trained by experts from Manila.
The selected GCGMH personnel will be trained as special vaccinators specifically for the Pfizer vaccine.
Doctors also agreed that the Pfizer vaccines should be administered to recipients at the GCGMH.
The efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine will be affected if there is a mishandling, according to Lopez.