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Health workers, seniors can’t get Sinovac shots. Inquirer Newsletter. February 23, 2021.

WATCHMEN ON DUTY Barangay watchmen (Tanod) in PPE suits inspect residents going in and out of Bgy. 107 in Pasay city after 33 barangays and 1 establishment was placed under a 14 day localized ECQ when Covid19 cases doubled in number the past few weeks. Pasay City is home to entertainment and recreational sites, transport hubs and local and international airports. INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

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YANGON—Businesses shut in Myanmar on Monday in a general strike called to oppose the military coup and thousands of protesters gathered despite a threat from authorities that confrontation could cost lives. —Story by REUTERS

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Health workers, seniors can’t get Sinovac shots

By Maricar Cinco and Dona Z. Pazzibugan

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday granted emergency use authorization to the COVID-19 vaccine made by the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech, but did not recommend it for front-line health workers at high risk of exposure to the coronavirus and for elderly people due to its varying levels of efficacy.

The FDA decision put economic front-line workers and military personnel at the top of the government’s priority list for inoculation with the vaccine donated by China. Soldiers will get 100,000 doses of the 600,000-dose donation expected to arrive this week.

Staff at government-run hospitals in Metro Manila and other cities were originally at the top of the priority list, but FDA chief Eric Domingo on Monday said late-stage trial data of the Sinovac vaccine, known by its trade name CoronaVac, showed it had a lower efficacy rate when used for health-care workers exposed to the coronavirus compared with healthy people age 18-59.

The Philippines has about 1.4 million health workers.

Not best for health workers

“According to our experts, [Sinovac’s] vaccine is not the best vaccine for them,” Domingo said in a news briefing, referring to the health workers. He said the data showed CoronaVac was only 50.4 percent effective in the high-risk group.

“Therefore, it is not recommended for use in this group,” Domingo said. “That’s better than nothing, but the recommendation of our experts is this is not the best vaccine for [health-care workers],” he added.

CoronaVac showed a higher efficacy rate of 65.3 percent among “clinically healthy” people 18 to 59 years old based on clinical trials in Indonesia, and 91.2 percent based on clinical trials in Turkey, Domingo said.

CoronaVac, according to the FDA, is safe for use and the adverse events reported after immunization were “transient and mostly mild to moderate, similar to common vaccine reactions.”. —WITH REPORTS FROM LEILA B. SALAVERRIA, MELVIN GASCON AND REUTERS INQ

Editorial

What about China?

Was it even true—the President's charge that the Americans were back, with 'a lot of arms stored in the Philippines,' as he put it, and were reclaiming Subic as a military base? Mr. Duterte offered no proof other than to say that 'these are things known to us because I have reports and assessments given to me by the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines).'

Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net