FDA calls on public not to patronize fake vaccines

Covid-19 vaccines are considered one of the country’s most precious commodities nowadays. While everybody wants to be protected against the virus, Food and Drug Administration Deputy Director General Dr. oscar G. Gutierrez Jr. warned that people should not buy vaccines online for these are not genuine products and may be harmful to their health.

“I am sure that vaccines sold online are fake vaccines. They should not be patronized by anybody .... otherwise, they are just giving money to the criminals,” Dr. Gutierrez said during the Kapihan session of the Department of Health (DOH).

Risk of fake vaccines

DR. GUTIERREZ stressed that fake vaccines may be contaminated and/or adulterated with hazardous substances that may even result in death.

Fake vaccines, he said, are ineffective and give a false sense of protection.

“Thus, the person may get infected and spread the infection in the community,” he said.

vaccines that are accessed or bought from illegitimate and unauthorized sources are the most expensive vaccines, he added.

“It can lead to infection, severe disease, permanent disability or death,” he warned.

How can we spot fake vaccines?

FAKE vaccines, he explained, are produced by criminals with the goal of imitating the genuine ones. They are even labelled and packaged in a way that they look like the real thing.

“It is difficult to spot one,” he said. However, a laboratory test is the only way to identify the difference.

He advised to look out for the following features:

Product:

FAKE vaccines may have striking physical differences from the genuine one as approved by the FDA with emergency Use Authorization.

Label:

IS not correctly labelled or not labelled at all;

Has an out-of-date or missing expiry date; and

Does not contain information on how to store the medicine.

Packaging:

THE packaging looks poorly constructed or appears to have been altered; and

There are spelling or grammatical errors on the packaging or instructions

Vial

DIRTY or scratched vials (bottle);

There are dents on the cap (plastic/aluminum) or it may be broken;

The rubber seal is already punctured; and

For products that need to be diluted, the color changes or the solution becomes cloudy because there are foreign matters inside the vial.

To ensure that the vaccine is not fake, Dr. Gutierrez said people should receive their vaccines only in DOH vaccination sites.

“As long as the public receives their vaccinations from a Dohauthorized vaccination site and the vaccines are given by licensed health practitioners, they can be confident that they are receiving genuine vaccines,” he said adding that the FDA has been coordinating with the World Health organization, INTERPOL, and even with the Association of Southeast Asian nations, Asia-pacific economic Cooperation, and United States Pharmacopeia.