HTAC explains action on boosters, expired COVID-19 jabs

MANILA, Philippines — Members of the Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC) defended yesterday their actions on expanded booster shots after they were dragged into the issue of the wastage of 4.25 million vaccines bought by the private sector.

“Expiration of vaccines is not enough reason to push for vaccines,” HTAC said in its statement released yesterday. “For any other health technology, our health professionals prescribe the best choice for the people, not because they are ‘sayang.’ ”

The HTAC is an independent advisory body created under Republic Act 11223, the Universal Health Care Act, with the overall role of providing guidance to the Department of Health (DOH) and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

“On several occasions, the HTAC has been placed under the spotlight due to wastage of 4.2 million vaccines in the hands of the private sector expiring this July 2022,” read the statement in which the HTAC Technical Secretariat denied a delay in any rollout date for COVID-19 vaccines.

“In fact, it released its recommendation on first booster doses on Nov. 3, 2021, followed by second boosters on April 28, 2022. Unfortunately, there has been low uptake of first boosters. As of June 20, 2022, the uptake of first booster doses is the following for the different priority groups: 53.23 percent for A1, 32.93 percent for EA1, 25.63 percent for A2, 26.09 percent for A3, 3.99 percent for EA3, 18.52 percent for A4, 10.52 percent for A5 and 21.49 percent for the rest of the adult population,” the council noted.

Yesterday, DOH Undersecretary Beverly Ho said the DOH should not be blamed for the recent expiration of more than four million doses of COVID-19 vaccines procured by the private sector.

“At this point in time, I think we shouldn’t be going into the blaming game because we all have the same objective, which is to maintain the immunity of the population,” Ho said in reaction to the criticism made by Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion that the DOH could have acted faster to salvage 4,252,830 COVID-19 doses from expiration.

Concepcion, former presidential adviser for entrepreneurship, criticized the DOH for not having decided earlier to allow second COVID-19 booster shots for Filipinos aged 50 and older and for individuals with comorbidities aged 18 to 49.

“We just need to be fair. Everybody has a role to play. There has to be checks and balances. We cannot have everyone agreeing on the same thing always,” Ho said, noting that other actions could have been taken to prevent the vaccines from reaching expiration.

In particular, she said the private sector could have worked on improving the first booster dose coverage among the workers sector instead of pushing for the second booster shots.

“We could do better in order to catch up in the coverage of the A4 population, which is the main reason why the private sector bought their vaccines. While the primary series is already at 80 percent, the first booster is merely at 20 percent,” Ho noted.

On the accusation that the DOH was late in approving the expanded second booster coverage, she insisted that they had the duty to rely on science, and not practical reasons, in making policies.

“Science is evolving. It’s really a matter of new evidence. We are not late. We are just being careful since many continue to have concerns on the safety of the vaccines. We want to assure everyone that we are thoroughly studying this,” said Ho.