MANILA, Philippines – The government must be careful when deciding to buy the coronavirus vaccine (COVID-19) to avoid “another Dengvaxia scandal in our hands,” Senate majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said Wednesday.
“Yung pagbili po lang natin ng bakuna sana yung kukunin neither [President Rodrigo Duterte] nor the secretary [of Health] of the DOH [Francisco Duque III] na mga bakuna are respectable resources and one of those who are at least very well tested.” Zubiri told reporters in an online interview.
The effectiveness of the vaccine is crucial, Zubiri, coVID-19 survivor.
“We want to make sure our FDA (Food and Drug Administration) officials want good quality and quality vaccines to be commodities,” Zubiri said.
(We’ll need to make sure that our FDA (Food and Drug Administration) officials make sure that the vaccines that are purchased and distributed to the Filipino public are vaccines.)
“Hindi po katulad ng nangyari po sa Dengvaxia [Unlike what happened to Dengvaxia]. We don’t need to have the Dengvaxia scandal in our hands,” he added.
During The Administration of Aquino, DOH introduced a national dengue vaccination program, the Dengvaxia dengue vaccine, to involve the emergence of developing dengue in the country. Approximately 800,000 people, mostly children, have gained doses of Dengvaxia since the program began in 2016.
A year later, Dengvaxia manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur issued an indication that the vaccine may lead to a greater threat of hospitalization by dengue and severe dengue in others who were not inflamed by the dengue virus in the past.
In December 2017, the Food and Drug Administration ordered Dengvaxia to be withdrawn from the Philippine market.
READ: FDA halts sale, distribution and Dengvaxia
The Crown conducted its own investigation into the deaths attributed to Dengvaxia. The PAO reported that all bodies tested showed symptoms of internal bleeding, cranial hemorrhage and enlarged organs.
Health officials, on the other hand, said no deaths shown can be attributed simply to the use of the Dengvaxia dengue vaccine.
“We must make sure that the vaccines (COVID-19) we receive are, in terms of effectiveness, very good. Yung talagang is the top point of antibodies and resistance ang nabibigay niyan,” Zubiri continued.
The senator said earlier that he would push for an investment of up to five billion pesos for the acquisition of COVID-19 Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, or Bayanihan 2 vaccines.
“Napakarami nang mga vaccines are starting to go on the market. We are in favour of the marami na pong vaccines from September, October and November that can be marketed,” Zubiri continued.
(There are already many vaccines that are starting to come to market. We are looking for the “ber” months, from September, October and November, many vaccines can be released to the market).
“The language of mom, mahuli tayo in the distribution of vaccines dahil buong mundo mamimili nito, baka mahuli tayo,” he added.
The Philippine government has already contacted various COVID-19 vaccine developers in the United States, Taiwan, China and the United Kingdom for a conceivable acquisition once vaccines have been discovered and made available.
More than a hundred possible COVID-19 vaccines are in progress lately around the world.
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) will meet with the Gamaleya Institute, the manufacturer of the Russian coronavirus vaccine (COVID-19), to discuss the imaginable involvement of the Philippines in clinical trials of the vaccine, according to the Department of Health. .
This, after Russian President Vladimir Putin previously announced that Moscow had and recorded a vaccine opposed to COVID-19.
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