Cebu City residents can choose coronavirus vaccine brand

DISINFECTION A personnel of the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño in Cebu City disinfects the chairs at the church’s Pilgrim Center before the start of the Mass on Sunday as the city strictly enforces health protocols and prepares for mass vaccination of residents once the Covid-19 drug becomes available. —DALE ISRAEL

CEBU CITY—City residents can pick the brand of coronavirus vaccine they want to be injected with from among those that the local government will purchase, or be provided by the national government.

“We will give them (people) the opportunity to choose because after all, these are people’s money, taxpayer money,” Mayor Edgardo Labella said in an online interview.

This was the reason Labella did not agree with those in the government who said the public could not choose their vaccine brand.

“If there is a way that we can choose a vaccine that you are comfortable with, then so be it. They should be given the chance,” he said.

Breaker

Cebu City has an allocation of the Sinovac vaccine that the national government has decided to buy, but Labella said he was also aware that many residents were not comfortable with the China-made product after it was reported not as effective against Covid-19 as other brands.

The city government also intends to buy vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna, both American pharmaceutical companies, using the P400 million initially allotted for the free inoculation program. An additional P100 million is being readied in case the initial allocation would not be enough, Labella said.

“One factor that will be considered is a vaccine’s efficacy rate,” he said.

The national government has already secured 25 million doses from Sinovac with an initial 50,000 expected to be available next month. Critics have raised concerns since Sinovac has only 50-percent efficacy.

Pfizer boasts of a 95-percent efficacy rate while Moderna has a 94.5 percent efficacy rate.

Vaccine board

Labella earlier created a “vaccine board” to map out the city’s vaccination program and to identify those willing to receive vaccines from China, or wait for brands from other countries.

The board is composed of Dr. Jeffrey Ibones, the officer in charge of the city health’s office; infectious disease specialist Dr. Bryan Lim, a representative of the Philippine College of Physicians; and Dr. Junjie Zuasula, head of the Department of Health’s Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit.

Labella said vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. had told him that Sinovac would be the immediate available COVID-19 vaccine in the country. Vaccines from western countries, he said, might be delivered in June.

The mayor said their target would be to immunize for free at least 70 percent of the city’s 922,611 population. INQ