Don’t be brand-conscious on vaccines, Galvez tells public

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. gets inoculated with Sinovac. PHOTO from PCOO-OGMPA

MANILA, Philippines — Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. on Wednesday appealed to the public not to be brand-conscious when it comes to Covid-19 vaccines, saying all will prevent severe cases of the disease, hospitalization and even death.

“Yung po ang inaano natin sa ating mga kababayan, dapat hindi po tayo maging conscious sa mga brand. Kasi lahat po ng mga vaccine, may kanya kanya pong efficacy yan,” Galvez said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel.

(That’s what we want to tell our countrymen, let’s not be conscious about the brand. Because all vaccines have their own efficacies.)

“Ang importante lang po talaga yung sinasabi ng mga doctor, yung sinabi ni Dr. Edsel Salvaña, ang pinakaimportante, yung hindi po tayo ma-hospital at hindi po tayo magkaroon ng severe cases.”

(What’s important is what the doctors are saying, Dr. Edsel Salavaña said what’s important is we won’t be hospitalized and we won’t have severe cases.)

“Kahit magkasipon tayo, magkaroon tayo ng symptoms pero parang wala pong magiging epekto sa atin in terms of yung severity, hospitalization and death,” he went on.

(Even if we catch a cold, we experience symptoms, it’s as if it’s nothing in terms of severity, hospitalization and death.)

Galvez noted that other countries have scrambled to secure doses of vaccines from the three major brands — AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna, while most Asian countries have used the homegrown vaccines, and Russia’s.

“Yung tatlong major brand, AstraZeneca, Pfizer at saka Moderna, talagang pinag-aagawan yan ng western countries, 75 percent ng ating global inoculation right now is being done by only 10 countries. Karamihan po ng Southeast Asian at saka developing countries, ay ang ginagamit ang Sinovac at saka yung Sputnik.

So far, the Philippines has rolled out only the COVID-19 vaccines from Sinovac which were donated by the Chinese government.

A recent survey done by the OCTA Research team, a group of academicians, showed that only 19 percent of adult Filipinos were willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

EDV