AFP: No side effects seen so far among PSG men who were vaccinated before FDA approval

MANILA, Philippines—No serious side effects had been found among members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG), who were inoculated with the vaccine Sinopharm, manufactured by a state-owned Chinese company, the military said on Friday (Feb. 19).

“No adverse side effects as we speak,” Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said in a statement.

According to the Department of Health (DOH) on its website, the side effects of vaccination included pain, redness, itchiness or swelling on the arm, where the vaccine is usually injected. These could last for a few hours, the DOH said.

Other side effects included fever, weakness or fatigue, headache, dizziness, diarrhea or nausea, according to the DOH.

“We are pleased that PSG personnel who have volunteered to be vaccinated in the pursuit of their mission to protect the President did not only perform a selfless act, they were also safe as an aftermath of the inoculation,” he said.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted the PSG’s application for “compassionate special permit” to use 10,000 doses of Sinopharm, just a few months after the presidential guards were drawn into a controversy when some of them got vaccinated even before regulatory approval of the vaccines.

The FDA authorization would allow the PSG and dependents of its members to jump the line on the government’s list of priority groups for vaccination which ranked men in uniform as fourth priority in getting the vaccines.

The country is still waiting for initial deliveries of other vaccines.

Arevalo said the AFP will give vaccination priority to its medical or health workers on the frontline of the fight against COVID-19, which make up 25 percent of the entire AFP manpower.

TSB