Any vaccine or health technology will always have a health risk attached to it, an official from the Department of Health (DOH) stated on Tuesday, Jan. 17 as United States (US) authorities are bound to investigate drugmaker Pfizer's Covid-19 bivalent vaccine and its possible link to a type of brain stroke in older adults.
Currently, DOH, according to the agency's Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire is still having discussions with vaccine manufacturers for the procurement of bivalent vaccines.
Vergeire also mentioned that the totality of the report does not conclude and indicated that those who have received Covid-19 bivalent vaccines will have a stroke.
"Ang sinabi lang diyan sa study na yan, the risk would be there," she added.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated in a report that following the availability and use of the updated COVID-19 vaccines, CDC’s Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), a near real-time surveillance system, met the statistical criteria to prompt additional investigation into whether there was a safety concern for ischemic stroke in people ages 65 and older.
"Although the totality of the data currently suggests that it is very unlikely that the signal in VSD represents a true clinical risk, we believe it is important to share this information with the public, as we have in the past," it added.
Vergeire recalled that back when monovalent vaccines were being introduced, reports such as this were also pouring in. This included embolism or heart problems. Yet she mentioned that two years in since the start of Covid-19 vaccination, adverse reactions to it are very low at less than 1 percent.
To recall, the country began with its Covid-19 vaccination program in March 2021. The government implemented prioritization starting with healthcare workers (A1), senior citizens (A2), individuals with comorbidities (A3), economic frontliners (A4), and indigent population (A5). She said that reports such as this must be taken with a grain of salt and should not be used as a hindrance to receiving vaccines that will help prevent severe and critical Covid-19 complications.
Currently, no Covid-19 bivalent vaccines are being given in the Philippines.
"All of these negotiations are still in the process and we will be informing everybody once deliveries are here already," Vergeire said.