“When are the vaccines coming?”
That was the question in the minds of many Filipinos after noticing the various
dry runs being performed in anticipation of the start of the vaccination drive
against COVID-19. The Department of Health even gave some dates for when
vaccines might arrive, only for none to show up at first. Some paperwork needed
to be done, apparently. Then the Chinese government sent over 600,000 doses of
CoronaVac from their manufacturer Sinovac Biotech. Even still, some Filipinos
are holding out for another promising vaccine, from UK-Sweden’s AstraZeneca.
After several delays, their vaccine has finally arrived in the country this
past Thursday.
GMA News Online reports that AstraZeneca vaccines against COVID
finally landed in the Philippines on the evening of March 4. Initial delivery
of 487,200 doses of the vaccine were sent over courtesy of COVAX, a facility
initiative under the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure
vaccines against the pandemic could be made available even to countries without
the purchasing power of major nations. As with the CoronaVac shipment earlier
this week, this precious cargo of COVID vaccines were welcomed by President Rodrigo
Duterte, who observed the unloading from a KLM flight originating in Belgium at
NAIA Thursday night.
AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine,
developed in collaboration with Oxford University, has been a favored vaccine
brand for a number of Filipinos against the pandemic, particularly among the
medical front-liners who are the priority to receive the earliest doses. This
too was the vaccine of choice for a number of LGUs that have entered into
agreements with AstraZeneca and the national government for large orders of
doses. One of its primary selling points was that it could be stored in cold
enough temperatures, unlike other COVID vaccines that need below-freezing
storage facilities.
This vaccine is not without
problems however. The AstraZeneca vaccine trials in the UK were cast into doubt
due to under-dosing of some test subjects. Also questioned was the discrepancy
of efficacy. As most COVID vaccines require a double does given at fixed
intervals, a study revealed that two full doses of AstraZeneca vaccine was only
62% effective. Yet a half-dose first injection followed by a full-dose second
shot somehow recorded a 90% efficacy rate.
Even though AstraZeneca’s
vaccines are now in the Philippines, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles notes
that the government must first wait for an assessment from the National
immunization Technical Advisory Group about where these doses are best deployed
to. Therefore, no date can be given on when AstraZeneca will be distributed
across the country for utilization.
Image courtesy of Yahoo News
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