Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. rejected Wednesday, June 30, the calls of some sectors to stop the procurement of Chinese-made Sinovac coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines and start prioritizing instead the purchase of Western brands that are "more effective" against the Delta variant.
Galvez assured that all the vaccines in the country's supply portfolio, a list of brands that are scrutinized by the Vaccine Expert Panel (VEP), underwent a "rigorous" review by the country's top doctors and vaccine specialists.
"We listen and follow the panel’s assessment on what vaccines to procure to ensure that they are all safe and effective regardless of brands. In fact, we have seen that all vaccines that have been given Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by our Food and Drug Administration are performing well in the real-world conditions compared to their clinical trial results," he said.
"We ensure that all the policies that we craft and implement are science-based and evidence-based. I will always consider the advice of our experts and not from people who do not want to listen to more prudent and deliberate decision-making," he emphasized.
The vaccine czar made the remark after Senator Franklin Drilon urged the national government over the weekend to veer away from procuring Sinovac vaccines and prioritize getting more Western brands such as Pfizer, which, the lawmaker said, proved to be more effective against the more transmissible Delta variant.
Drilon lamented the national government's preference on the "less effective" Sinovac compared to Pfizer.
According to the Department of Health (DOH), Sinovac yielded 65 to 91 percent efficacy rate based on clinical trials conducted in Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey as of March 2021. Meanwhile, Pfizer has an efficacy rate of 95 percent.
This month alone, the Indonesian government said at least 10 doctors who received two doses of the Sinovac jab have died after contracting COVID-19, raising questions on the efficiency of the Chinese vaccine.
However, Galvez noted that Sinovac's CoronaVac vaccine is 90 percent effective in preventing intensive care admissions and deaths in Uruguay.
He added Sinovac is also 94 percent effective in protecting healthcare workers in Indonesia.
"This shows that Sinovac is performing well and at par with Western-made vaccine brands. In addition, the China-made vaccine is being used in more than 28 countries around the world," he said.
Out of the total 17.46 million vaccine supply in the country, about 68 percent or 12 million doses are composed of Sinovac jabs. Other available brands include Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, and Moderna.
Galvez said the VEP has discouraged the public from "concluding too early" on the efficacy of the vaccines against the Delta variant "as data gathering is still ongoing."
Last week, President Duterte had ordered the implementation of stricter public health protocols to prevent the spread of the Delta variant in the country.
The Delta variant, which the World Health Organization (WHO) said is slowly becoming as the dominant strain of the coronavirus, was blamed for India's worst outbreak in April.