THE SAFEST THEY DESERVE Members of All UP Workers Union protesting on Friday against the use of the China-made Sinovac vaccine say Filipino health workers in the front lines of the fight against COVID-19 deserve the safest and most efficacious shots. 鈥擬ARIANNE BERMUDEZ
The National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (Nitag) on Friday recommended the use of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by a Chinese company even for health workers.
The Chinese government was scheduled to deliver on Sunday its donation of 600,000 doses of CoronaVac, the vaccine produced by Sinovac Biotech after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the company an emergency use authorization (EUA).
The vaccine will be the first to be shipped legally to the country. Another vaccine developed by China鈥檚 state-run China National Pharmaceutical Group, popularly known as Sinopharm, was found to have been smuggled into the country as early as September last year.
Concurrence
The FDA, however, stated that it was not recommending CoronaVac for front-line health workers handling coronavirus cases because of the relatively low 50.4-percent efficacy rating of the vaccine in tests among the same group in Brazil. This has created hesitancy toward its use among Filipino health-care professionals.
But Malaca帽ang and the Department of Health (DOH) on Friday said the vaccine was safe.
鈥淭he DOH, the [FDA] and our panel of experts concurred that current available evidence is enough to establish that the vaccine is safe for use,鈥� said Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
She said Nitag鈥檚 recommendation was approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), the government body in charge of the response to the pandemic.
Vergeire said that the agency was not prohibiting health-care workers from getting the Sinovac vaccine.
鈥淲e want to emphasize that the provision on use for health-care workers attending to COVID-19 patients included in the EUA granted for Sinovac is not a contraindication, nor a recommendation borne of concern over the vaccine鈥檚 safety. The DOH, the FDA, and our panel of experts concur that current available evidence is enough to establish that the vaccine is safe for use,鈥� Vergeire said.
According to the DOH, no vaccine provides 100-percent protection from COVID-19.
Vergeire explained that clinical trial data from Sinovac showed that the vaccine was 鈥�50-percent effective in preventing mild symptoms and 100-percent effective against moderate to severe symptoms.鈥�
鈥淕iven this evidence, the Nitag has deemed it sufficient to recommend the use of the vaccine for HCWS (health-care workers) as it bears to reiterate that our goal for prioritizing health-care workers for vaccination is to reduce morbidity and mortality among their group while they maintain the most critical essential health services,鈥� she said.
Still among top priorities
Malaca帽ang welcomed the experts鈥� recommendation to use the Sinovac vaccines on health-care workers.
鈥淎s we have said [on] many occasions, health-care workers are the most critical front-liners in our fight against COVID-19 and they remain at the top of our priority list for vaccination,鈥� presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement on Friday.
He said the IATF鈥檚 approval of the recommendation of the Nitag and the Technical Advisory Group of the DOH was 鈥渁n assurance鈥� that the Sinovac vaccine was 鈥渟afe and beneficial to our health-care workers.鈥�
He said Malaca帽ang was confident that many health-care workers would want to be inoculated with the Chinese vaccine.
In addition to health workers, those who are in line to receive the donated vaccine are members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which is expected to get 100,000 doses.
Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, the AFP spokesperson, said the military was aiming to vaccinate 100 soldiers a day.
Vaccination is mandatory for the military, but individual soldiers are free to choose which vaccine they prefer, Arevalo said.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 want that those of us who will deliver the vaccines, but are unprotected, will spread the virus to the people we want to help,鈥� he said at Friday鈥檚 Laging Handa briefing.
Soldiers who do not want to get the Sinovac shot may choose another brand of vaccine, but they would have to pay for it, Arevalo said.
Health-care workers also would not be forced to get the Sinovac shots, according to Vergeire.Anna Ong-Lim, member of the DOH technical advisory group, said she understood the hesitation toward Sinovac.
鈥淚 am also part of the PGH (Philippine General Hospital) community, and we have been waiting and hoping for the vaccines. Of course we were told that it would be the Pfizer vaccine, and I can say that when we heard that news, our spirits were really lifted,鈥� she said.
She said it would not be a problem if health-care workers waited for their chosen vaccine.
But she said the issue was 鈥渨hether [the other vaccines] will come, and if they will come.鈥�
鈥淩ecognizing this fact, we want to give them the chance to take the Sinovac vaccine. It鈥檚 an option, since some of them really feel like every day they come to work is a gamble on their lives,鈥� she added.
Over 40 members of the All UP Workers Union staged a protest at the PGH on Friday against the use of the Sinovac vaccine and demanded the 鈥渟afest鈥� and 鈥渉ighly efficacious鈥� vaccine for health-care workers.
PGH workers鈥� protest
鈥淲e are the front-liners. We are the ones facing the patients and we will be given a vaccine that is not sure?鈥� said national union president Jocelle Ebesate. He said almost 97 percent of PGH workers favored the Pfizer vaccine.
In a statement on Friday evening, hospital director Gap Legaspi said that he had earlier advised the PGH community 鈥渢o accept any vaccine as long as it is approved by the Food and Drug (Administration) and has an emergency use authorization.鈥�
鈥淟et us understand that all the chosen vaccines鈥擯fizer, AstraZeneca and Sinovac鈥攁re all declared safe and effective. The FDA said all vaccines have the same safety factor, and that the side effects are less likely by half of half of a percentage,鈥� he added.
He said it would be a 鈥渉uge benefit鈥� to health-care workers who are deemed to be at high risk to be vaccinated.
Legaspi said vaccination was 鈥減urely voluntary鈥� and would begin on March 2.
鈥淣o one is being forced to take this vaccine and assurance is given that if you decide not to take this one, your prioritization as a health-care worker will remain when the next one comes,鈥� he said. 鈥擶ITH REPORTS FROM LEILA B. SALAVERRIA AND JODEE A. AGONCILLO