Using COVID-19 jabs without EUA a 'mockery' of FDA, Robredo says
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday warned that using COVID-19 vaccines without emergency use approval only undermine local regulators, after President Rodrigo Duterte was inoculated with Sinopharm last week.
The president stirred controversy anew after receiving his first dose of the Chinese-made jab on May 3. The Food and Drug Administration has cleared six vaccines, but Sinopharm has yet to be included in the list.
Over radio DZXL, Robredo said using jabs without EUA could harm efforts by the FDA, whose experts are tasked to check that vaccines coming in to the country undergo rigorous assessment.
"We have to be careful," she said in Filipino. "In a way, you are promoting the vaccine administered to you and that's difficult if it has no EUA. It makes a mockery of our existing regulatory agencies."
The country's No. 2 added that she would get a vaccine as soon as it is available. But she said she would wait for her turn to ensure that those who urgently need it would get it first.
"If we don't use vaccines with EUA, then it is as if the FDA has no purpose, right?" Robredo added.
This marks the second controversy involving Sinopharm in the Philippines. To date, no one has been held accountable over its illegal inoculation to the Presidential Security Group last year.
In January, Robredo said the smuggled vaccines could hurt efforts to build public trust on the jabs as she called for transparency on its investigation.
The president has since ordered the return of the 1,000 doses of Sinopharm to China after drawing criticism. But he also sought to qualify his decision as saying it was his doctor's choice, and "all things said, this is my life." — Christian Deiparine
The national government has so far secured two official deals for COVID-19 vaccine supplies in the Philippines, one with Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac and another with the Serum Institute of India.
Watch this space for bite-sized developments on the vaccines in the Philippines. (Main image by Markus Spiske via Unsplash)
Health Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire says the general population may now get their second booster jab.
"We're just waiting for the release of implementing guidelines, then we'll start rolling out our second booster for the general population," she says. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
Amid questions on vaccines being administered, the Department of Health assures the public all doses are safe and effective as the “process of extending shelf life goes through thorough stability studies.”
“The government ensures that every vaccine that is injected with an extended shelf life has gone through studies, and is still safe and effective against COVID-19,” it adds.
Government must increase vaccination capacity across the Philippines in anticipation of a surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant of the corona virus, Sen. Risa Hontiveros says.
She says local government units and the private sector can work together to put up more vaccination centers and deploy more vaccination teams to get more people inoculated against COVID-19.
"The active COVID cases have nearly doubled in three days. The positivity rate is almost four times the ceiling set by the World Health Organization. Huwag na nating hintayin na sobrang lumala pa ang sitwasyon bago tayo gumawa ng paraan para mapabilis ang ating pagbabakuna."
FDA chief Eric Domingo says that its agency has given emergency approval for the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
The United States immunized around 900,000 children aged five-to-11 against Covid in the first week the Pfizer vaccine was authorized for them, a White House official says Wednesday.
Roughly 700,000 more have made appointments at pharmacies, White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zients tells reporters.
"The program is just getting up to full strength," he says, adding most of the shots were given in the last couple of days alone. — AFP
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