Vaccines for U.S. Vets in the Philippines

[OnMyWay]

There may be an opportunity for our most deserving U.S. Veterans to get a vaccine in the Philippines, provided by the VA.

This information is from Jack Walker at RAO Subic, after a conference call with VA in Manila, last November 18th.

Also breifly discussed was the recent news regarding the China Virus Vaccine. They anticipate getting a limited quantitiy of it ionce FDA approves it. There are a lot of considerations they need to make to administer the program and are already purchasing the equipment to do it. One thing is the vaccine must be kept at -70 Celsius (-94 F), so they have already contracted for that equipment. Another consideration is portability, as stated above the vaccine must be maintained at the very temp so we will have to go to it, vice it coming to us. Another part of it is, it will require 2 vaccinations about 6 wks apart, so they have to be sure the vets selected for it will make both appts. Transpo is normally the biggest problem with appts, so having a few thoughts on how RAO might be able to come up with an idea to take that out of the equation, more on this later. The biggest part of the vaccine program is that you will have to be eligible to receive care at VA Manila to be eligible for the vaccine. That basically means you have to have a service connected injury/illness, as is mandated by congress to receive care at VA Manila. Before the questions start let me say "THIS PROGRAM IS FOR ELIGIBLE VETERANS ONLY". VA is not authorized to provide care for Family members in the Philippines except on rare occasions. There is a remote possibility that somewhere in the future TRICARE will cover the vaccine. They already do so for some vaccines and hopefully this will follow suite. TRICARE also currently covers PCR TESTING WITH STRICT PARAMETERS. As I said at the beginning, nothing will happen on the vaccine until FDA approves it and then VA will announce eligibility and procedures, so please hold your comments and questions until we know more, this is just a heads up, thanks and stay safe.