SUMMARY
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Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon cautioned the government against obtaining COVID-19 vaccines from the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac, which has an efficacy rate of 50%.
“We emphasize the urgency of procuring COVID-19 vaccines. We understand that the government may be trying to balance cost, efficacy, availability, and logistics complexity in determining which vaccines to bring in. But safety and efficacy should be first and foremost. We should not sacrifice safety and efficacy. Otherwise, we run the risk of people refusing a COVID-19 vaccine out of fear,” Drilon said in a statement on Christmas Day.
“While 50% efficacy meets the minimum requirement for vaccines, Sinovac’s reported 50% efficacy clearly pales in comparison with Pfizer and Moderna, and even AstraZeneca. I do not see how 50% efficacy can build public trust and confidence in vaccines,” he added.
Phase 3 trial data showed the COVID-19 vaccine of Pfizer and BioNTech had an efficacy rate of 95% while the counterpart by Moderna rated 94.1%. AstraZeneca’s vaccine, developed with researchers from Oxford University, scored 70% in efficacy.
The Philippine government is expecting a shipment of the Sinovac vaccine to arrive by March 2021, which would make it among the first COVID-19 vaccines to be administered to Filipinos.
Peace Process Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr, the country’s vaccine czar, earlier said the government has ongoing negotiations with several COVID-19 vaccine makers besides Sinovac. Having a portfolio of these vaccines is ideal, instead of having just one kind administered to the population, added Galvez.
The Philippines would have received 10 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine in January 2021, but Health Secretary Francisco Duque III failed to supply a requisite document in time for negotiations, Senator Panfilo Lacson revealed last week.
The government is buying vaccines from Sinovac because it is behind in the queue for the ones by Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said on December 15.
“Buhay at kinabukasan ng mga Pilipino ang pinag-uusapan natin dito. Hindi natin tatanggapin ang salitang ‘pwede na’ pagdating sa usapin ng bakuna,” Drilon said on Friday. (Filipinos’ lives and future are at stake here. We won’t accept “that will do” when it comes to vaccines.)
“Secretary Carlito Galvez must consider this carefully and wait for clearer guidelines from the scientific community and other authorizing agencies to determine whether Sinovac is worth offering to our people,” Drilon added.
The country must begin its vaccination program against COVID-19 “with the best possible combination of vaccines” it can procure, the senator said.
With the government looking to complete the vaccination program for roughly 70 million Filipinos – the number it would take to attain herd immunity – over 3 to 5 years, Drilon said it must prioritize frontliners and the high-risk segment of the population in the near term. – Rappler.com
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