FRIDAY last week I mentioned in my column that this polio resurgence, or as the Department of Health (DOH) puts it more emphatically, an outbreak, could be the result of incompetence and the lack of proper information and education campaign (IEC) by the DOH itself after the natives’ confidence on vaccines was shaken by the Dengvaxia scandal.
It does seem that way but as I did more research on the polio outbreak I found out something more sinister than just your typical government bureaucrat’s negligence and stupidity; it had the makings of greed, corruption and much more.
It is already public knowledge that the Dengvaxia vaccination program was a fund-raising scheme by then President Noynoy Aquino’s motley crew for the 2016 presidential elections and a vehicle to raise awareness and public sympathy for his anointed one, Mar “Daang Matuwid” Roxas. Unfortunately for them and the 800,000 schoolchildren vaccinated with Dengvaxia, the plan backfired as the Sanofi Pharmaceutical’s experimental anti-dengue drug Dengvaxia proved fatal, resulting in deaths of some 300 schoolchildren vaccinated.
And now we have this polio outbreak 20 years after it was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as eradicated in the Philippines.
The most convenient excuse was that the scare caused by the “Dengvaxia deaths” resulted in a drop of the polio immunization vaccination program. From an average of 85 to 95 percent it went down to 65 percent, sounds logical and seems to be the perfect scapegoat for the polio outbreak.
But wait. The polio outbreak was not caused by a wild strain polio virus as the last known case from a wild strain of the virus in the Philippines was in 1993. Wild poliovirus type 2 was declared globally eradicated in 2015.
And it’s getting “curiouser and curiouser”…
So if the wild polio virus type 2 was globally eradicated in 2015 and is no longer found in the face of the earth, what caused the outbreak? And that’s where our story begins:
Excerpts from a Sept. 19, 2019 report from Associated Press:
Philippine health officials declared a polio outbreak in the country on Thursday, nearly two decades after the World Health Organization declared it to be free of the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease.
Health secretary Francisco Duque III said at a news conference that authorities have confirmed at least one case of polio in a three-year-old girl in southern Lanao del Sur province and detected the polio virus in sewage in Manila and in waterways in the southern Davao region.
Those findings are enough to declare an outbreak of the crippling disease in a previously polio-free country like the Philippines, he said.
WHO and UNICEF said in a joint statement the polio outbreak in the Philippines is concerning because it is caused by vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2.
The weakened virus used in vaccines replicates for a short time in children’s intestines and is excreted in their feces. In rare instances, they said, the weakened virus can strengthen in areas with poor sanitation and hygiene. Children who have not been properly immunized can be susceptible.
From all indications the polio outbreak is manmade and was caused by something from the laboratory and as WHO and UNICEF said…lo and behold, a vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2.
Another Dengvaxia-type scandal. The irony there is that dengue is a natural occurrence; there is nothing more natural than a dengue mosquito biting a person and infecting that person. This polio outbreak, on the other hand, was caused by something made in a laboratory.
As I said, there is something sinister and much more in this polio outbreak.
Sometime in 2016 DOH and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) came out with a memo banning Trivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (tOPV). The reason for this ban is to avoid the re-emergence of circulating vaccine-derived polio virus type 2.
Excerpts from a press release of that DOH and FDA joint memo:
DOH – FDA warns public on banned polio vaccine
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director General Nela Charade
G. Puno is reiterating her warning to the public to report to the FDA and the
Department of Health (DOH) the names of doctors who continue to dispense
the banned Trivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (tOPV).
The FDA cancelled the Certificates of Product Registration (CPR) last year
of all manufacturers, importers and distributors of tOPV vaccines in line with
the Order of the DOH for all health facilities nationwide to stop using tOPV to
avoid the re-emergence of circulating vaccine-derived polio virus type 2. All
remaining inventory of tOPV were also ordered destroyed.
“This type of vaccine has already been banned by the DOH and FDA last year,”
Puno said. “In the light of recent reports that some private physicians
continue to prescribe tOPV, we are calling on the public to be vigilant in the
polio vaccine that is being prescribed to their children.”
As confirmed by DOH secretary Francisco Duque, the confirmed polio-infected victim and the samples found in the sewage in Manila and in the waterways in southern Davao region were all vaccine-derived polio virus type 2.
Was it just greed and corruption or something more sinister, i.e. put the government and the President in a bad light? The timing, ground zero, plus the location of samples found are just uncanny? (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
