Inanunsyo ng interim National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) noong Biyernes na inirerekomenda nito ang paggamit ng Covid-19 vaccine na gawa ng Chinese company na Sinovac para sa health workers, bagama’t unang naghain ng agam-agam tungkol dito ang Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Ito ay kasabay nang inaasahang pagdating ng mga naturang bakuna sa Linggo, Pebrero 28, kung saan bibiyan ng prayoridad ang mga sundalo at health workers.
Noong Lunes, binigyan ng FDA ang Sinovac ng emergency use authorization, subalit iginiit na hindi ito angkop para sa mga health workers na madalas ma-expose sa Covid-19 patients dahil sa 50.4% efficacy rating nito batay sa isang pag-aaral sa Brazil.
Dahil dito, dumulog ang DOH sa NITAG para sa rekomendasyon nito kung paano ipamamahagi ang mga nasabing bakuna bunsod ng mababang efficacy rate nito para sa health workers at sa ilalim ng prioritization framework ng pamahalaan.
“The DOH, the Food and Drug Administration and our panel of experts concurred that current available evidence is enough to establish that the vaccine is safe for use,” diin ni Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire sa isang briefing noong Biyernes.
“NITAG and the TAG (technical advisory group) has deemed it sufficient to recommend the use of the vaccine for health care workers as it bears to reiterate that our goal for prioritizing health care workers for vaccination is to reduce morbidity and mortality among their group, while they maintain the most critical essential health services,” dagdag pa ni Vergeire.
Ayon sa opisyal, iprenesenta na umano ng NITAG ang naging rekomendasyon nito sa Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Covid-19 response.
Aniya, “Just this morning we presented to the IATF and we got approval already. This will also be presented to the President.”
Ayon naman kay Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, ang approval ng mga bakuna ay “assurance” na ang paggamit ng Sinovac vaccine ay “safe and beneficial to our healthcare workers.”
“As we have said in many occasions, healthcare workers are the most critical frontliners in our fight against Covid-19 and they remain at the top of our priority list for vaccination.”
“We are confident that many of our healthcare workers would get themselves inoculated to boost public confidence in our mass vaccination program against the coronavirus,” giit ni Roque.
