The Chinavax (sinovac and sinopharm) are legitimate vaccines and very safe (based on traditional vaccine technology of using inactivated viruses). But they are not super effective at preventing infection, and even less effective against covid.

They are still quite effective at preventing serious symptoms and hospitalization and very effective at preventing death, which means they are still fantastic tools.

At first, western vaccines were harder to come by, but by now you can easily get AstraZeneca, Moderna, or Pfizer anywhere in Metro Manila or Cebu City. Johnson&Johnson and Sputnik are also available.

Outside of the metropolitan areas, your mileage may vary.

What's true is that there is a lot of fake news and disinformation about the vaccines and the virus in Philippines that spreads like wildfire, and that's especially true about the Chinese vaccines. Many people were refusing to take Sinovac and waiting for the western vaccines.

I’m hearing it’s really hard to get a “legitimate “ vaccine .

It was, I've wanted to get a vaccine since they were launched and was only able to get vaxxed a few months ago. Nowadays supposedly they're more widely available, though I can't speak as to the provinces.

Lots of the vaccines available aren’t trusted , “chinavax” being the one prominent option they don’t trust and

Sinovac is legitimate, but it's not trusted because there's a lot of distrust of China, and tests in general show it's not as effective as the others.

even getting a vaccine is very difficult if you are poor.

Generally these are offered free by the government. Supply is the question though.