Questions and uncertainties surround vaccination program rollout

AFTER a brief period of anxious waiting, coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines have finally started trickling into the country with the delivery in quick succession of two vaccine types. First to arrive was a delivery late yesterday of 600,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccines from China. The vaccines are a donation from the Beijing government.

Next, there will arrive at noon today a second batch of 525,000 doses of the Astra Zeneca vaccine. This forms part of the vaccine deliveries from the Covax facility under the auspices of the United Nations.

With more than 1 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine on hand, the country’s national vaccination program can now formally start, says the chief implementer of the national Covid task force and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr.

He bared that the initial doses of the vaccines would be administered at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), Veterans Memorial Medical Center and other major hospitals, which had been preparing to receive and manage the first batch of vaccine arrivals.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd and Galvez are set to receive the Sinovac vaccines this morning to boost public confidence in the vaccine, according to Sen. Christopher Lawrence Go. It might help if Senator Go himself and Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr., as two of the biggest talkers of the vaccine rollout, also offer themselves up to be vaccinated.

Even with all this falling in place, there remain many questions and uncertainties shadowing the vaccine rollout.

High among these is Filipino skepticism about the efficacy and safety of the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine against Covid-19. The vaccine has not passed up to now the required third stage of clinical trials for vaccine candidates. All Sinovac has in its belt is a clinical trial conducted in Brazil, wherein it got an efficacy rating of 50.4 percent, which barely met the 50 percent threshold set by the World Health Organization and is a far cry from the 90 percent rating of three approved United States vaccines: PFizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson’s.

There is rising resistance among Filipino health workers to being vaccinated with Sinovac.

Some 2,500 to 3,000 health workers at the PGH do not want to be inoculated with Sinovac because of its low efficacy rating.

Saying they deserve “only the best,” the health workers have staged a protest to demand free, safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines.

Meanwhile, the PGH Physicians’ Association says the Sinovac vaccine should undergo further appraisal by the Health Technology Assessment Council before being administered to healthcare workers.

The association said the expected administration of the Sinovac vaccine at the PGH was met with a “sweeping disapproval rate of 95 percent” among the hospital’s residents and fellows.

Although Sinovac was given an emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration, it was not recommended for healthcare workers due to its lower efficacy rate.

The Department of Health said the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group had agreed to recommend Sinovac for health workers.

Muddling the issue even more is a recent report in the Epoch Times and Indonesian media that an Indonesian nurse died 17 days after being vaccinated with the CoronaVac vaccine in East Java. CoronaVac is the research name of the Sinovac vaccine.

The report said Erny Kusuma Sukma Dewi, 33, tested positive for the CCP virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, and was treated at a hospital, but then died. Her colleagues and friends tested negative for the virus, while her husband tested positive without symptoms, according to the president of the Ngudi Waluyo Regional General Hospital where Dewi had worked.

The Indonesian government has begun a nationwide program to vaccinate all health workers against Covid-19. As a medical professional, Dewi received a first shot of CoronaVac on January 28. Before she was able to receive a second injection on February 5, Dewi developed a fever, cough and difficulty breathing. She visited a local hospital for treatment. On February 6, her condition deteriorated and she was transferred to the hospital she worked at, receiving treatment at the intensive care unit until she died on February 14. Dewi’s story will resonate among our people.

No guinea pig at this time can embolden anyone to take Sinovac.