MOUNTING criticisms and accusations of corruption has finally moved the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) and its mother agency, the Department of Health (DOH), to greenlight China-made vaccines, particularly, ‘Coronavac/Sinovac’ for use by Filipinos aged 60 years and above.
In a statement last April 7, 2021, increasingly controversial FDA director general, Rolando Enrique ‘Eric’ Domingo, however continued to devalue the efficacy of the vaccine by alleging that senior citizens (above 60 years old) receiving Sinovac should be “preceded by careful evaluation” as its efficacy data “is not yet sufficient to establish vaccine efficacy.”
The FDA, DOH and other local China-bashers are basing their purported skepticism on the reported low efficacy of Sinovac during clinical trials last year in Brazil involving medical frontline workers who are already afflicted with Covid-19 and where it initially registered an average efficacy rate of 50.4 percent.
What was deliberately censored by the FDA and local anti-China bashers, however, was the fact that even in Brazil, those with severe cases of Covid-19 resulted to 100 percent recovery, while the result in Turkey showed an efficacy rate of between 83.5 percent to 91 percent.
Indonesia, on the other hand, has decided to partner with the vaccine maker, Sinovac Biotec, to produce the vaccine locally after it registered an efficacy rate of more than 65 percent.
The FDA’s conscious move to underrate Sinovac was however countered by Dr. Nina Gloriani, head of the government’s Vaccine Development Expert Panel.
In a separate media interview also last April 7, 2021, Gloriani said they already recommended to the FDA the use of Sinovac for senior citizens.
Gloriani also assured that based on their previous evaluation, CoronaVac/Sinovac “has a good safety profile, causing only mild to moderate side effects that would last up to just two days, and also prevents severe COVID-19 cases.”
Gloriani further added that based on previous studies, anti-bodies produced by the elderly who received the vaccine were almost the same as those produced by people aged 18-59 years old.
Temporary halt to ‘AZ’ due to safety concern
In a separate bulletin, the FDA last April 8, 2021, advised for a temporary stop to the use of ‘AstraZeneca’ (AZ), a product of Western ‘Big Pharma’ (AstraZeneca based in Cambridge, Great Britain and Stockholm, Sweden), over issues on its safety, this time for people below 60 years old.
As a shameless promoter of Big Pharma products, the FDA has approved the use of AZ as early as January 28, 2021, even though a single dose is yet to arrive in the country. The first batch of AZ vaccines totaling 487,200 doses only arrived last March 4, 2021.
But now, citing the latest report from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the FDA pushed for the halt on its use.
The EMA has cited reports of “blood clots” in at least 16 cases across Europe for those who have received the jabs. Suspicion on AstraZeneca’s safety has spread across Europe with Philippine vaccine czar, Carlito Galvez, in a report to Congress last March 30, 2021, acknowledging “increased AZ vaccine hesitancy” in Europe.
Aside from AZ, another Big Pharma producer, Pfizer, has also drawn serious concerns in much of Europe after its vaccine resulted to the death of dozens of elderly citizens with 23 deaths registered in Norway alone last January 2021.
FDA, one thoroughly corrupt agency?
As the country continues to grapple with the pandemic and its adverse effect on the economy, both the FDA and the DOH has come under closer public scrutiny, mainly over their unexplained “hesitancy” in approving other potential cures for Covid-19.
Aside from making it hard for cheap, China-made vaccines and other proven China made medicines to reach poor Filipinos, Domingo and his boss, health secretary Francisco Duque III, are also under fire for denying the use of ‘Ivermictin’ against Covid-19, a medicine that has been around for more than 40 years now.
In a social media post that has since gone viral, broadcast journalist Raffy Tulfo claimed that a syndicate at the FDA and DOH has taken control on the approval of drugs and other products that are covered by the FDA’s mandate.
Tulfo further averred that between P20 million to P50 million has become the “going rate” at the FDA if proponents want their product to get an FDA approval.
Tulfo then called on both Domingo and Duque to simply resign.
In an exclusive report by Pinoy Exposé last year (Volume No. 1, Issue No. 2, October 5 to October 11, 2020), the FDA hastily approved the lifting of its ban on the use of some cosmetic products it earlier found not containing any “SPF” (sun protection factor).
It was Domingo who ordered the approval, sources, said, despite fully knowing that consumers would be buying a bogus and unsafe product and despite a complaint letter that his office received. Domingo, until now, is yet to respond to the complaint.