The World Health Organization (WHO) has yet to issue the final Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and specific protocols for the conduct of its Solidarity Vaccine Trials (SVT) in the country.
This was disclosed by Department of Science and Technology Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara, who heads the Task Group on Vaccine Evaluation and Selection (TG-VES).
“Wala pang issuance from WHO (No issuance yet from the WHO),” she told the Manila Bulletin.
The DOST has been awaiting the final SOPs and specific protocols since last month.
Guevara cited the importance of WHO’s conduct of its clinical trials in the country "since we are still looking for vaccines that will be affordable, accessible and available, and even better than those that have received EUA (emergency use authorization), so far.”
“It is not yet late ,” she said, as the government is expected to roll out its vaccination program within this month.
In an interview last Feb. 2, Guevara noted that WHO's issuance of the SOPs and protocols for the clinical trials has been delayed following the detection of the United Kingdom and South African variants of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19.
Guevara said because of the presence of the two new COVID-19 variants, the WHO "had to figure out how to understate the protocol.”