Study highlighting efficacy of Sinovac may decrease vaccine hesitancy

Photos from the National Task Force against COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — A study showing that three shots of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine can prevent deaths in the elderly by 98 percent could help address vaccine hesitancy in the country, said a pharmaceutical consortium executive.

IP Biotech Group chairman Enrique Gonzales was referring to a study done by the University of Hong Kong, which revealed that three shots of Sinovac’s CoronaVac offered approximately 98 percent protection against death or severe illness in those over 60 years old, underscoring the importance of boosters for those who have received the COVID-19 shot.

“The data from real world study in Hong Kong supports previous studies from Chile, China, Indonesia and Turkey that Sinovac is a safe (and gentle) vaccine yet equally or more effective than other vaccine platforms,” said Gonzales.

“The continued validation on the safety and efficacy profile of CoronaVac should further boost vaccine acceptance across all approved age groups. It is indeed a vaccine that can keep the entire family safe from COVID-19,” he added.

Specifically, the study showed that after completing a third dose the effective rate of Sinovac vaccine against severe illness is 97.9 percent, while the effective rate of BioNTech vaccine was 98 percent.

The effective rates in preventing death of Sinovac and BioNTech, meanwhile, were 98.3 percent and 98.1 percent respectively.

This is much higher compared to when only two doses have completed — which the same study showed that for people over 60 years old, the effective rates of Sinovac and BioNTech in preventing severe illness were 72.2 percent and 89.6 percent, respectively; the effective rates in preventing death, on the other hand, were only 77.4 percent and 92.3 percent.

This came amid low turnouts of “booster shots” in the country even after it was already made available to senior citizens in November 2021.

As of March 27 in the latest weekly COVID-19 data report, the Department of Health said that only 72.93 percent have been fully vaccinated, only 11,825,403 people have so far been inoculated with the third dose, referred to as the “booster shot.”

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