The Task Group on Vaccine Evaluation and Selection (TG-VES) has secured the all-out support of the local government units and healthcare workers for the conduct of the World Health Organization (WHO) Solidarity Vaccine Trials (SVT) in the country.
Department of Science and Technology Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara, who heads the task group, noted the level of interest among the LGUs and healthcare workers on the clinical trials.
“We are getting their support,” she told the Manila Bulletin in a phone interview when asked about the results of the town hall meetings conducted by the TG-VES, in cooperation with the Task Group Demand Generation and Communication.
“It is not acceptance of vaccines, but rather understanding the information so that they can explain dun sa babakunahan nila at dun sa magpa-participate sa ating clinical trials. Natutuwa kami, when we started last January 29 there were more than 500 participants,and Monday, more than 900 participants at makita mo ang level ng interest, kasi when we started Monday, hindi pa kami nagu-umpisa 300 questions na ((It is not acceptance of vaccines, but rather understanding the information so that they can explain to the recipients of vaccines and those who will participate in our clinical trials. We are happy, when we started last January 29, there were more than 500 participants, and Monday, more than 900 participants and you see the level of interest, because we started Monday, we haven’t started yet, and we already received 300 questions),” Guevara noted.
She said the two-hour town hall meetings were conducted on January 29, February 1 and 2 to inform the LGUs and the healthcare workers about their role in the vaccine trials.
"Ang commonly asked questions is yung safety and efficacy ng vaccines under clinical trial, syempre 'yung safety ng participants, ng healthcare workers at LGUs , at ano ba ang inclusion at saka exclusion, sino ang puwedeng sumama, sino ang hindi puwedeng sumama at ang detalye ng protocol, papano gagawin ba yan ang clinical trial pati ethical considerations pinagusapan namin (The commonly asked questions is the safety and efficacy of vaccines under clinical trial, of course, the safety of the participants, the healthcare workers and LGUs, what is the inclusion and the exclusion, who should join or who should not join, and the details about the protocol, how will the clinical trial be conducted and we also talked about ethical considerations),” Guevara said.
“Lastly, they asked about the vaccine logistics saka details ng vaccines at trials. Sino ba ang maggagawa nyan, mga eksperto ba yan? Tuwang tuwa kami kasi madami talagang nag-attend (Lastly, they asked about the vaccine logistics and the details of the vaccines and trials. Who will do that, are they experts? We are very happy, because many attended)," ,” Guevara said.
She said among those who joined the virtual town hall meetings were doctors, registered nurses, barangay health workers, city and municipal health care workers, medical technologists, and local chief executives and barangay captains.
“Natuwa kami yung aming reach and engagement, we were able to reach more than 100,000 in the first day then you had 1, 800 engagements. Last Monday, you had 84,000 reach and 294 engagements. It is safe to say na ang kailangan namin na ma-reach ay nareach na (We are happy about our reach and engagement, we were able to reach more than 100,00 in the first day then you had 1, 800 engagements. Last Monday, you had 84,000 reach and 294 engagements. It is safe to say na we already covered what we have to reach," Guevara ended.