DOH: Death of 3 vaxxed children due to illnesses

The death of three children who were inoculated against COVID-19 was not related to the vaccines, the Department of Health said on Friday, citing initial results of an ongoing investigation.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that based on the initial reports, the three children died of other illnesses.

“One died because of non-COVID-19 pneumonia, another died because of dengue and another died because of tuberculosis,” Vergeire said.

“We are saddened by this and we condole with the families, but let us remember vaccines are not the only ones that could be the cause of these deaths following vaccination,” she added.

Coincidental

The death of the three children age 12 to 17 were among the reports of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of suspected adverse reaction to COVID-19 vaccines released last Nov. 28.

“Reports of fatal events [do] not necessarily mean the vaccine caused the events. Underlying conditions or preexisting medical conditions causing fatal events are usually coincidental on the use of the vaccine,” the FDA noted.

Most of these events, it said, occurred in persons with multiple existing comorbidities, including cardiovascular diseases, ischemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and infections.

Vergeire said case investigation and causality assessment were still ongoing.”

The causality assessment being conducted by our experts from our regional adverse event following immunization committee is not done yet,” she added. —Tina G. Santos