Health experts on Friday urged the government to consider using more vaccine brands to meet its goal to vaccinate 39 million children against COVID-19.
To date, the country only uses two vaccines—Pfizer and Moderna—to vaccinate adolescents 12-17, and a reformulated Pfizer vaccine for children aged 5-11, but Dr. Lulu Bravo of the Philippine Foundation for Vaccination and Dr. Benny Atienza of the Philippine Medical Association said there should be more vaccine options to speed up the inoculation process.
“Clinical trials are still ongoing for other brands such as Sinovac, a Korean vaccine, and [another] Chinese vaccine,” Bravo said, but added that Sinovac is already being used for pediatric COVID-19 vaccination in other countries such as Indonesia.
She said other pediatric COVID-19 vaccines may be available in the near future as “they are already in advanced clinical trials and therefore should be rolled out soon.”
At a forum organized by the Samahang Plaridel, Bravo and Atienza also allayed fears of parents amid the continued proliferation of misinformation and fake news regarding vaccination.
Bravo also stressed the importance of avoiding vaccine fallacies by listening only to doctors and public health experts.
“Claims such as excess deaths, behavioral changes in kids, that these vaccines are experimental, that the risks of vaccines outweigh the benefits—all of these claims are not based on science and should therefore not be entertained.,” Bravo said.
She said getting COVID-19 carries a risk that children may become seriously ill or develop post-COVID-19 complications that may be severe, such as Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C).
“Naturally infected children can also spread the virus to others,” she said.
“Vaccination can significantly reduce the risk and protect children from developing COVID-19 in a safe and controlled way. It can also reduce the chance of spreading the virus to others.”
Atienza said so far there have been 54 sites used for jabbing the 5- to 11-year-old demographics.
From Feb, 7 to 11, there have been a total of 69,800 children who have been vaccinated.
He said the country is expecting some 15 million additional vaccine doses to arrive this month to help the government achieve its target coverage by May.
The government is aiming to vaccinate more than 39.41 million children aged zero to 17 years old, of which 12.74 million are aged 12 to 17 years old, 15.56 million are 5 to 11 years old, and 11.11 million are 4 years old and below.
The Philippines has so far vaccinated around 329,000 children aged 5 to 11 years old against COVID-19, the Department of Health (DOH) reported on Friday.
In a Palace briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said of the total number, only eight experienced adverse effects following immunization, which include rashes in the extremities, itchy throat, vomiting, and pain in the site of the injection with chills.
Vergeire said the DOH is ensuring that the health workers in vaccination sites are prepared to respond to any adverse event that children may experience.
She also gave assurance that the COVID-19 vaccines administered are safe and effective.