Fake News: pneumonia vaccine scare
MANILA, Philippines — In a recent panel discussion dubbed “The Need for Transparency and Truthfulness in Public Health Amid Misinformation and Fake News,” health experts and parenting advocates warned about another trouble similar to the dengvaxia scare if pneumonia vaccines end up monopolized.
In March 2019, the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged former Health Secretary Janette Garin and nine others with reckless imprudence resulting to the deaths of eight children due to dengvaxia vaccine.
Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA) chairman and former Bulacan Gov. Obet Pagdanganan stressed the importance of transparency and effective governance in purchasing Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) to avoid another vaccine scare.
“Global experts like the World Health Organization (WHO) have already reported that the available PCVs in the market are comparable in impact, so we must make sure that the government procures them through an open, competitive bidding process,” says Pagdanganan.
Philippine Foundation for Vaccination executive director Dr. Lulu Bravo and TV host Niña Corpus-Rodriguez stated that the dengvaxia scare was brought by misinformation.
“Even back in 2017, when the vaccine scare was at its peak, misinformation had caused confidence in vaccines to plummet from a 2015 high of 93 percent, to an abysmal 32 percent in 2018,” shares Bravo. She added that one of the most credible sources for health information is WHO.
According to WHO’s position paper, PCV10 and PCV 13 are effective in protecting children from pneumococcal diseases. This was also reported in studies from the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Pagdanganan added that effective decision making and competitive bidding allow further study of the two vaccines and promote transparency in the health sector. He also added that savings can be alloted for pneumonia treatments.
