Lawmakers on Wednesday called on the Department of Health (DOH) not to roll out the US-made Pfizer BionTech COVID-19 vaccines to children even though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed it for emergency use on minors 12 to 15 years old.

1-PACMAN party-list Representative Eric Pineda pointed out that the vaccines are still experimental and children are not included among those severely affected by coronavirus.

“I hope that even though it has been issued emergency use authorization, we would not yet roll out this to children because they are not affected unlike the elderly,” Pineda said during the House Committee on Good Government hearing.

“So let’s not use this yet on children because we may have a second round of Dengvaxia,” he warned, referring to the dengue vaccines administered to children by the previous Aquino administration.

The government then stopped the school-based dengue immunization program after more than 100 parents blamed government officials responsible for the deaths of children who were administered with Dengvaxia.

Using COVID-19 vaccines on children ought to undergo more study since the vaccines since the long-term effects of the vaccine are still being studied, Bagong Henerasyon party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy also warned.

“I think this needs to be studied thoroughly,” she said.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III responded that the DOH is still studying this and assured that the 12 to 15 year old children are still not included in the priority list.

Duque said the Philippine Pediatrics Society (PPS) and the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of the Philippines (PIDSP) have vowed to study the inoculation of children younger than 12 years old.

“I agree, we truly need to study this further and they are not included in our prioritization framework. If you look closely they are not included in any of the categories,” Duque said.

The DOH chief said they will wait for the result of other nations that already vaccinated their minor constituents.