FDA: Deaths unrelated to vax
It is sad that there are reported deaths, but our evaluation shows that they are not related to vaccination.
Twenty-four people reportedly died after receiving anti-coronavirus vaccines but their deaths were unrelated to the inoculation, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Friday.
The FDA assured the public that the jabs remain safe and effective against Covid-19.
FDA director-general Eric Domingo said the agency’s assessment showed that 19 of the 24 deaths were coincidental to vaccination, while the remaining cases are still being investigated.
Out of the 24 who died following their vaccination, 11 were found to have been infected with Covid-19, eight had cardiovascular or cerebrovascular illness, and three suffered other infectious diseases, it said in a media briefing.
The remaining two are still being reviewed for the possible medical conditions that led to their deaths, he added.
“It is sad that there are reported deaths, but our evaluation shows that they are not related to vaccination,” Domingo told reporters.
He also noted that the deaths reported after vaccination in Hong Kong and the United States had no direct causal association with Covid-19 vaccines.
Domingo also underscored that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks as the government seeks to boost its Covid-19 immunization program and convince the public to receive the coveted shots.
Of the total one million Filipinos who received Covid-19 vaccines as of 10 April, only 344 suffered serious side effects other than death, Domingo said.
Of these, 152 of them got vaccines from China’s Sinovac BioTech, while 192 received shots from British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca.
On the other hand, 24,330 individuals experienced mild effects after their vaccination, of which 6,882 people received Sinovac vaccines and 17,448 got AstraZeneca jabs.
In an effort to boost public confidence in vaccines, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Friday publicly received his first dose of anti-coronavirus jab at the gymnasium of the Department of Health (DoH)’s main office in Manila.
The 64-year-old official, who belongs to the elderly population or the A2 priority group for vaccination, got the CoronaVac jab developed by Sinovac.
Health Undersecretary Gerardo Bayuga administered the vaccine to Duque. The procedure was aired over state-run PTV-4.
The health chief previously said he was willing to get vaccinated using Sinovac to convince more people to get vaccinated, but he deferred his inoculation since the jabs were then limited to clinically healthy individuals aged 18 to 59.
The DoH and the FDA later allowed the use of the China-made jabs for senior citizens following the recommendation of local vaccine experts amid a shortage of doses from AstraZeneca.
In a statement, Duque assured the public that vaccines are safe and effective in preventing severe Covid-19 conditions.
“As I receive my dose of the Covid-19 vaccine today, I invite everyone to do the same, and choose to be protected,” Duque said.
“Let us all take part in protecting public health, and let us be in unison in spreading one message: That vaccines are safe, and vaccines are effective,” he added.
Over 1.3 million health workers, senior citizens, and those with chronic illnesses have been vaccinated so far against Covid-19 since the March rollout.
The Philippines has received three million vaccine doses from Sinovac and 525,600 doses from AstraZeneca, of which two million doses were procured.
The government aims to vaccinate some 50 to 70 million Filipinos by the end of the year to achieve herd immunity.