Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying
Vaccine efficacies are the result of laboratory studies. Makers hedge on their guarantees because the jabs are for mere emergency use.
But with millions of injections administered in scores of countries, scientists now have real world data. One is that vaccination lessens viral load.
Fourteen world experts prepared an “Initial Report of Decreased SARS-CoV-2 Viral Load After Inoculation with the BNT162b2 Vaccine.” The March 29, 2021 article in the Nature Medicine journal is frequently cited. Among the salient conclusions: “We found that the viral load was substantially reduced for infections occurring 12-27 days after the first dose of vaccine. These reduced viral loads hint at a potentially lower infectiousness, further contributing to vaccine effect on virus spread.” They referred to vaccinees of messenger or mRNA.
Two months later America’s Centers for Disease Control published similar findings. In its updated “Science Brief: COVID-19 Vaccines and Vaccination”, May 27, 2021, CDC stated:
• “People who are fully vaccinated with a currently authorized mRNA vaccine are protected against asymptomatic infection and, if infected, have a lower viral load than unvaccinated people.”
• “A growing body of evidence indicates that people fully vaccinated with an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) are less likely to have asymptomatic infection or to transmit SARS-CoV-2 to others. Studies are underway to learn more about the benefits of Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine. However, the risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection in fully vaccinated people cannot be completely eliminated as long as there is continued community transmission of the virus.”
The local Departments of Health and of Science and Technology are to study actual results on Filipino vaccinees as well. Included are the “traditional” attenuated virus vaccines from China, Europe and America approved by the World Health Organization and the Food and Drug Administration.
But vaccine availability remains iffy. Afflicted with the “mañana habit”, officials were late in procuring, legalizing and preparing for arrival of the vaccines.
Hesitancy remains high. Seventy five percent of Metro Manilans and 60 percent nationwide are reluctant, surveys show.
Accessibility is poor. Officials fail to inform the prioritized persons – the elderly and those with comorbidities – where and when the jabs are to be administered. They rely merely on barangay hall bulletin boards and Facebook posts. Often people who want to be vaccinated learn about the event only by word of mouth, a malady reported on AM-radio. Only 15 percent of senior citizens have been inoculated, Duque said.
Oddly, only half of vaccinees of the first dose have returned for the second. While 97 percent of medical frontline workers in Metro Manila have been injected once, 57 percent have yet to be given the second dose, Duque added. It’s unlikely for doctors, nurses and hospital workers to not know that they need the two doses for full efficacy. Probably their second jabs have not been delivered or scheduled.
Pacquiao has a stake in PDP-Laban. It was faltering in 2013 when then-president, Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, invited him to join as congressional candidate. In 2016 Pacquiao led its senatorial ticket. His celebrity not only won the crowds; his multibillion-peso prize earnings also bankrolled party-mates’ congressional and local campaigns. Supporting Duterte to victory in 2016 suddenly made PDP-Laban the ruling party. Pacquiao continues to fund administrative expenses.
Sara, on the other hand, is not a PDP-Laban member. In the 2019 mid-term election, her Davao regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago endorsed 15 candidates for the 12 senatorial slots, some of them PDP-Laban.
Pinning Pacquiao against the ropes can only provoke the fighter to punch back. Expectedly, he will rally his party supporters against his belittlers. Expulsions are likely as with other parties torn by infighting in the past. Munsayac hinted as much when he said officers who attended Monday’s National Council meeting should just leave the party.
PDP stands for Partido Demokratiko Pilipino; Laban for Lakas ng Bayan. Founded respectively by Aquilino Pimentel Jr. in 1982 and democracy icon Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. in 1978, PDP and Laban were the main opposition to Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship. PDP-Laban coalesced with other parties for Cory Aquino’s victory against Marcos in the 1986 snap presidential election.
Pacquiao’s loyalists are reviewing party principles – democracy, human rights, national sovereignty – to dissociate from the Duterte faction’s authoritarian ways, bloody war on drugs and acquiescence to China.
Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying
* * *
“Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.