NEWS | COVID-19 vaccine options for frontliners remain limited
By Miraflor Anacio
The Philippines’ vaccination rollout began on March 1 which was marked by the ceremonial vaccination at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) where 100 people received the Sinovac Biotech vaccine, CoronaVac, from China’s donated 600,000 doses that arrived on February 28. The program continues as doses were delivered to different hospitals and provinces. Meanwhile, another 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, from the COVAX Facility donated by European countries, arrived in the country on March 4 and it immediately began its rollout on Monday, March 8.
Lack of data transparency
The results of the phase 3 clinical trial data of Sinovac were only submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), making it inaccessible to the public. The FDA approved the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) application of Sinovac Biotech on February 22.
According to FDA Director-General Eric Domingo, CoronaVac is approved and is considered safe with an efficacy rate of 65.3 to 91.2 percent, however it has a lower efficacy of 50.4 percent in findings of Brazil trials that involved health workers exposed to COVID-19. Due to this, experts do not recommend the use of CoronaVac to health workers and senior citizens.
The confidentiality of CoronaVac’s data on safety and efficiency made health workers and frontliners reluctant to get vaccinated. In response, members of the All UP Workers Union staged a protest at the PGH on Friday, February 26, against the use of the Sinovac vaccine and demanded the “safest” and “highly efficacious” vaccine for health-care workers.
“Full efficacy, safety data was made available only to Phil regulatory body. It was deemed “confidential,” not to be made publicly available. Most PGH residents and fellows I know are refusing Sinovac, some out of serious concerns about efficacy, safety. But many out of principle, in protest over the lack of transparency over data for which EUA was granted,” said Nico Cabrera, an Immunocompromised and transplant infectious disease fellow.
National Union President Jossel Ebesate also said that almost 97 percent of PGH workers favored the Pfizer vaccine which is why the sudden change of vaccine resulted in only 12 percent of PGH employees willing to receive the vaccine as reported by PGH Director Gerardo Legaspi.
Confidence building
In the ceremonial program of inoculation, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque called the program a success as they emphasized that vaccines are important regardless of brand. Legaspi even reiterated that the best vaccine is the vaccine at hand, despite the protest of many health workers.
Many politicians and hospital directors at different provinces also received vaccines, including PGH Director Legaspi and Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez. However, President Rodrigo Duterte, Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque, Spokesperson Harry Roque, and others excused themselves as they said health workers should be prioritized.
Other limiting factors of vaccines
Various cases of COVID variants were recorded, starting from the United Kingdom (UK) variant, Cebu mutations, and to the most recent South African variant. Father Nicanor Austriaco, OCTA researcher, warns that Astrazeneca might be ineffective against African variants if the number of COVID-19 cases will not be curbed. Nicanor explained that several studies showed that the AstraZeneca vaccine’s efficacy rate against the South African Variant, officially known as B1351, dramatically decreased from 70% to 10%.
Limited doses of vaccines is another issue that the government deals with. With this, Duque admitted that the one million doses that arrived are still not enough for the 1.7 million health care workers, who are needing approximately 3.4 million doses.
Furthermore, Duque encourages Filipino to take the vaccine without hesitation and should not wait for other vaccines to arrive because of the uncertainty of its arrival. Despite the government’s continuous efforts to pursue Filipinos to get vaccinated, the lack of data transparency, old controversy over the Dengvaxia vaccine, and questions of safety and risks holds them back.
Meanwhile, 20 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna, under the COVAX program, are estimated to arrive in June and May. Galvez furthered that the Philippines is targeting to close more supply deals with Johnson & Johnson for 5 million doses as well as the Serum Institute of India for Novavax and AstraZeneca’s vaccines.
