Duque: Immunocompromised persons can’t get Covid-19 vaccines

MANILA, Philippines — Immunocompromised individuals cannot receive the Covid-19 vaccines as they may experience adverse effects, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Friday.

“‘Yong mga immunocompromised, ‘yong kanilang immune system na mahina o may tama, ay hindi natin pwedeng bigyan ng bakuna,” he told reporters in an ambush interview.

(Immunocompromised individuals, those whose immune systems are either weak or have taken a hit we cannot give them vaccines.)

“So may mga tinatawag na contraindication. So ‘yong contraindication na ‘yan, kung masyado nang matanda, alam niyo ‘yong nangyari sa Montreal, Canada, sa Pfizer ‘di ba, 31 ‘yong namatay dahil sabi nga nila, no’ng naturukan. Ngayon, hindi naman ma-direktamentang maiugnay ‘yung bakuna. Pero kailangan, pagiingat pa rin,” he added.

(So there are certain contraindications. These contraindications, if you are too old, just like what happened in Montreal, Canada, with Pfizer, right, 31 died because they say, after vaccination. Now, they cannot directly link the vaccines. However, we still need to be cautious.)

The United States’ Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said people who are immunocompromised or have weakened immune systems include those with HIV/AIDS, and inherited diseases that affect the immune system, as well as cancer and transplant patients who are taking certain immunosuppressive medicines.

The World Health Organization (WHO), meanwhile, does not advise administering the Covid-19 vaccine to people with underlying health conditions, despite the vaccines being safe.

In a statement posted on its website, the WHO enumerated conditions that may disqualify a person from getting the coronavirus vaccine, specifically the Pfizer-BioNTech product:

• extreme allergic reactions
• pregnant and breastfeeding women
• children

So far, the Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorizations for vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca.

The government has either secured or has been in continuous negotiations to secure millions of doses for Filipinos from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Covovax, Gamaleya, Sinovac Biotech, and Sinopharm. It also joined the COVAX Facility or the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Acces Facility, a global mechanism designed to guarantee rapid, fair, and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines worldwide.

A few thousand doses of Covid-19 vaccines may be expected to arrive in the Philippines within this month or by early March, according to authorities.

The government also targets to roll out its Covid-19 mass immunization program within the first quarter of the year, as it likewise hopes to vaccinate at least 70 million Filipinos to achieve herd immunity and significantly arrest the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which causes the potentially fatal respiratory illness.

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