MOST PREFERRED VACCINE Residents wait for their turn to get Pfizer vaccine jabs in Caloocan City on Tuesday. —NINO JESUS ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines — It’s time that the government’s pandemic managers prioritized the acquisition of vaccines with better efficacy rates, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
The Senate leader on Tuesday urged the vaccine czar, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., to focus the government’s vaccination program on vaccines found to be more effective in curbing COVID-19 transmissions, such as those made by US pharmaceuticals Pfizer and Moderna instead of lower-efficacy brands like China’s Sinovac.
“When lives of Filipinos are at stake, we should not be satisfied with ‘good enough.’ We need to buy the most effective vaccines,” Drilon said in a statement on Tuesday.
The senator said Galvez “should open his eyes and set aside his personal preference, or that of the administration” for Sinovac.
“It is about time for Secretary Galvez to look at this objectively and listen to health experts. I have not heard of any doctor or any member of the medical profession that recommends Sinovac over Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca,” Drilon said.
He challenged Galvez to present any doctor who preferred Sinovac over the other brands “aside from Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.”
Drilon cited reports from countries that used Sinovac as its main vaccine, such as Indonesia, showing that a relatively high number of vaccinated persons, especially members of the healthcare sector, had caught COVID-19 despite getting the Chinese jabs.
“That is very alarming because as it appears now, Sinovac is the vaccine of choice by the government. We want to prevent the situation that is happening now in Indonesia,” he said.
“We are not promoting any brand. What we are saying is, Filipinos deserve the best vaccine, especially front-line doctors and nurses who are exposed to the virus,” Drilon said.
He added that these reports about Sinovac “do not augur well for a country that has high vaccine hesitancy.”
Drilon noted that Pfizer’s vaccine posted an efficacy rate of 95 percent while that of Sinovac’s vaccine ranged anywhere from 65 to 91 percent based on clinical trials in countries like Brazil.
“That’s a basic logic: Why choose a vaccine that is less effective yet more expensive over a vaccine that is more effective but less expensive?” he said.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) on Tuesday announced that the indemnity program that will pay out vaccine recipients who suffer serious adverse events following immunization against COVID-19 is already in effect.
Shirley Domingo, vice president of PhilHealth for corporate affairs, told an online press briefing that under the COVID-19 Vaccine Injury Compensation Package, a claimant can get a maximum of P100,000 for hospitalization, while those who suffer permanent disability or death can get a lump sum amount of P100,000.
For the hospitalization benefit, the P100,000 will pay for any remaining charges on top of regular PhilHealth benefits and other health benefits provided by private health insurances and health management organizations.