Duterte scrambling for funds to buy vaccine: I think China has already won, we’re just waiting for announcement

Has China won the race to find a vaccine against the COVID-19 pandemic which has caused 324,889 deaths worldwide?

President Rodrigo Duterte apparently thinks so and is already finding funds so the government can buy it once the vaccine becomes available.

“Nag-usapan tayo ng pera na may pera ako pangbili ng vaccine just in case somebody else would beat the Moderna to the vaccine. I think China has already won. We are just waiting for the announcement,” said Duterte in a May 19 briefing with the Inter-Agency Task Force.

“Many countries are on the verge of — lumalapit na sila, malapit na sila sa vaccine. Naghahabulan. But from the — judging from the time the COVID started up to now, I’m sure that they have made a lot of progress in finding the vaccine. Nakahanap na sila. Kailangan may pera ako niyan kasi bili kaagad tayo,” he added.

The NPR said China was leading the global race in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine with half of the vaccines that have already gone into clinical trials were discovered by Chinese companies.

Duterte did not give any details but cited Moderna as the most promising.

“A pharmaceutical called Moderna… I think I heard South Africa or — I don’t know what is the legal residence of this corporation, but mayroon na silang tests — with ‘s’, tests — na showing positive results,” said Duterte.

“Mayroon ng vaccine but ang problema it will be ready, according to them, by 2021 pa. January at the very — at the earliest. So kung ganoon ‘wag ka sanang mamatay hanggang January, hintayin mo ‘yung vaccine,” he added.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)