(PNA file photo by Avito Dalan)
MANILA – A health expert on Wednesday urged people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) regardless of the brand, as these are all safe and effective.
"What matters most is the effectiveness and the impact that a vaccine can do to a country. We have already done Sinovac and AstraZeneca and if you look at the impact of what Sinovac has done in Indonesia, which is a country na halos pareho natin (almost the same as ours)," Dr. Lulu Bravo of the Philippine Foundation for Vaccination, said in a Laging Handa presser.
Citing the good outcome of using Sinovac vaccines in Indonesia, Bravo said Covid-19 cases in the Philippines' Southeast Asian neighbor are significantly declining.
"But definitely the real world, okay, the real-world impact is much, much higher than what we will call efficacy that is based on the clinical trial," she added.
Based on the study by Indonesia’s health ministry, the China-made CoronaVac jabs developed by Sinovac Biotech company have been proven to be highly effective among healthcare workers.
"So, nakikita natin mayroon ng impact iyong Sinovac sa Indonesia; of course, iyong mRNA malaki na rin iyong impact sa Israel (as we see, Sinovac has an impact to Indonesia, of course, the mRNA has also a huge impact in Israel)," Bravo said.
Sinovac's CoronaVac jab was found to be 98 percent effective at preventing death and 96 percent effective at preventing hospitalization among a group of inoculated Indonesian medical staff.
Indonesia has fully vaccinated more than nine million of its people and targets to inoculate 181 million of its around 273 million population by January 2022.
Bravo, a vaccine trialist for over three decades, said all vaccines have gone through various studies, researches, and tight scrutiny of experts.
"We have hundreds of vaccine experts – ‘pag iyan ay sinabi nila na ‘okay sa atin, okay iyan,’ wag tayong magpa-tumpik-tumpik sapagkat ang kailangang tumaas na ang ating mga bakuna upang ma-reach natin iyong target natin na 70 percent (so when experts say the vaccines are okay, they are okay to use, let’s not hesitate to get vaccinated because we need to reach 70 percent of the country’s target population)," she said.
He added once the country reaches its target to achieve herd immunity, "we can gradually return to our normal life.”
As of May 18, the country has around 3,850 active vaccination sites nationwide.
The National Task Force against Covid-19 said 99 percent of the available doses of Covid-19 jabs have been distributed to various local government units.
Out of a total of 3,299,470 administered vaccine doses, 2,512,942 Filipinos have received their first shot, while 786,528 are fully vaccinated. (PNA)
