THE Department of Health (DOH) on Monday reminded health workers deployed in vaccination centers to take extra caution and attention in doing their job after a video was circulated showing a health-care worker may have failed to inject the correct amount of a Covid-19 dose to a vaccine recipient.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque said they are already looking into the incident, saying, “This is a clear breach of vaccination protocol,” which is now being investigated in coordination with the local government unit concerned. The incident, as claimed in the caption of the video, happened in Makati City.
“Sinisigurado po namin na ating iimbestigahan ang pangyayaring ito upang mapabuti ang ating [We assure everyone that we are investigating this incident to improve our] national vaccination program. Sa pagdating ng mas maraming bakuna sa bansa (As more vaccines are delivered,) we will continue to improve our speed, scale, and quality of service,” Duque said.
The DOH said that officials at the vaccination site were quick to address the mistake and the recipient was successfully vaccinated after showing the video to the vaccination team
Human error
Makati City Mayor Abigail Binay described the incident as “human error on the part of the volunteer nurse that was immediately corrected.”
“She [vaccinee] understood what happened there and it was she who also asked [us] not to fire the]nurse. We ask simply for the public’s understanding,” Binay appealed.
Binay said these frontliners have been responding to this pandemic for over a year now and that it is very difficult to look for qualified vaccinators at this time.
“Tao lang ang ating frontliners. Napapagod sila. Nagkakamali. Pero ang mahalaga, naayos agad ang pagkakamali. Humingi sya ng patawad, at siya naman ay pinatawad (Our frontliners are only human.They get tired. They make mistakes. The problem has been fixed. She asked for forgiveness, and she was forgiven)!” Binay stressed.
Binay also appealed to the public to stop sharing the video.
The mayor was saddened claiming that the incident is being politicized already, saying partly in Filipino, “Some people are now spreading the video to discredit the vaccination program of the national and local governments.”