President Duterte respects the medical experts’ view but is baffled by the latest decision of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) not to recommend coronavirus vaccines developed by Sinovac for inoculation of health workers, Malacañang bared Wednesday.
According to Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, the President summoned FDA director general Rolando Enrique Domingo to attend the Cabinet meeting last Monday to give an explanation on why the Sinovac vaccines were not recommended for use on health workers, even though it met the 50 percent efficacy threshold for vaccines set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The FDA earlier approved the Sinovac vaccine for emergency use but did not recommend its use on health care workers due to varying levels of efficacy. The vaccines instead could be used by healthy persons from age 18 to 59 years old.
The FDA approval paves the way for the delivery of the 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines donated by China in the coming days. The supply delivery was delayed due to the absence of the regulatory approval.
"Just so the Sinovac manufacturer knows about this fact and the government of China knows this fact.. just to translate, the President expressed his, well let's say, the fact he is perplexed by the special requirements of the EU noting the WHO itself has laid down the minimum threshold to be 50 percent," Roque said during a televised press briefing Wednesday.
Unlike in the Philippines, Roque said they found out Sinovac vaccines are being used by health workers in other countries.
"During the Cabinet meeting, the President inquired if other countries using Sinovac are using them on health care workers, on that occasion, the answer of Dr. Domingo was he does not know. But I have gone out personally my way and found out that countries like Indonesia have used Sinovac on their health care workers," he said.
Roque maintained that Duterte still respects the decision of the FDA on the use of the Sinovac vaccines in the country.
"Naiparating ni Presidente yung kanyang pagtataka kung bakit may ganitong colatilla. Nirerespeto ni Presidente ang opinyon ng mga experts (The President has relayed his confusion on why there was such colatilla. The President respects the opinion of experts) so let the colatilla remain," he said.
He said Domingo has already clarified that its advice against the health workers' use of Sinovac vaccines was just a recommendation. He said if health workers wanted to be vaccinated with Sinovac, they may still avail themselves of this option.