The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is open to the possibility of conducting a study on the effects of coronavirus vaccines on youth, an official said Thursday, June 10.
DOST Philippine Council for Health Research and Development Executive Director Jaime Montoya said a study can be done once the Department of Health (DOH) and the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) decide that it is necessary.
“Kami po ay open na kung kinakailangan ay pag-aralan din ito para makita natin kung ang response ng ibang bansa ay katulad rin po ng mga Pilipino, kapag binakunahan ang ating mga kabataan (We are open to study it if necessary so that we can see if the response of other countries is the same as that of the Filipinos, when our youth are vaccinated),” Montoya said in a public briefing.
“Pwede po natin gawin yan kung yan po ay dedesisyunan ng ating Department of Health at ng ating IATF kung kailangan po itong gawin (We can do that if our Department of Health and our IATF decide that it is necessary to do so),” he added.
The country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in children aged 12 to 15.
While the jab has been approved for use on adolescents, the DOH said the government will still stick with its prioritization of vaccinating the vulnerable sector first.
“While we welcome more vaccines that are approved for children and adolescents, due to limited vaccine supply, our vaccination strategy remains the same — prioritize the vulnerable and adhere to our prioritization framework,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said earlier.
“The general consensus of our vaccine experts is to revisit pediatric and adolescent vaccination once our vaccine supply has stabilized,” she added.