The more than 1,200 cases of myocarditis or heart inflammation logged in the United States among young adults and adolescents following the inoculation of Pfizer vaccines should not prod the government to stop the use of the US-made jabs, the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCHRD) said on Sunday, June 27.
DOST-PCHRD Executive Director Dr. Jaime C. Montoya said amid the reported side effects of vaccines developed by American drugmaker Pfizer-BioNTech, the use of these vaccines should not be stopped.
“Sa huli naming pagkakaalam, ito po ay isasama ng FDA doon sa information na kasama po ng bakuna pero hindi naman nangangahulugan na ito ay rason para hindi ibigay ang bakuna dahil according sa mga pag-aaral nila ito ay very rare hindi po ito common kaya pinapaalalahanan tayo na puwede ito mangyari (As far as we know, the FDA will include this information for the vaccine but this does not mean that this is a reason not to give the vaccine because according to their studies, it is very rare, but we are being reminded that this could happen),” he said in an interview over DZBB.
Reports said the US Food and Drug Administration had added a warning to the literature that accompanies Pfizer and Moderna jabs to indicate the rare risk of heart inflammation after its use.
Montoya said such adverse event is “not permanent” and has not resulted in deaths among vaccinees.
“Kaya lang kailangan sya na ideklara na baka posible na may kinalaman sa bakuna (It has to be declared because it might be possible it has something to do with the vaccine),” Montoya said.
Citing a study in the US, he said most of those who experienced the inflammation of the heart muscle have viral infection.
“Ang karamihan merong nabigyan ng bakuna, ang dahilan ay hindi po dahil sa bakuna dahi mayroon po silang viral infection na hindi lang nila alam at ito ang sanhi ng myocarditis (Most of those who got vaccinated have viral infection, and the reason is not because of the vaccine, they just do not know that they have viral infection and this is the cause of myocarditis),” the PCHRD top official said.
Some 40 million doses of Pfizer vaccines are expected to be delivered in August after the government signed a pact with the American drugmaker to purchase the US-made jabs.