Health workers of UP-PGH who are members All UP Workers Union-Manila stage a protest in front of PGH. They are against giving Sinovac vaccine to healthcare workers because of its efficacy rate of 50.4%. They held their protest during lunch break.

The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday said the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) has agreed to recommend the COVID-19 vaccine of China’s Sinovac Biotech for health workers.

Accoding to Tony Leachon MD, “This is very disturbing. The FDA is the highest regulatory agency for evaluation and approval of any drug, product or vaccine. FDA initially declared that Sinovac is not recommended for HCWs and senior citizens due to 50 % efficacy rate in the Brazilian study.”

ABS-CBN tweet, “The group also expressed their dismay after the government failed to deliver the 117,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines and are now pressured to accept Sinovac.”

Palace confident that many healthcare workers will have themselves vaccinated with the Sinovac vaccine following the recommendation of the IATF for the vaccine to be used on them.

Dr. Marissa Alejandria, a member of the DOH TAG, said the experts reviewed data from unpublished trials.

“Considering the circumstances that our country is in where the first vaccine that we have now is really Sinovac, the same considerations in evaluating were used. So the efficacy, the safety, and then rational allocation of the vaccine,” she explained.