“Only 50% effective?”… Philippine Politician Calls Against Chinese Vaccine Purchase

Local politicians have voiced opposition to the Philippine government’s plan to purchase a vaccine for the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) from China.

On the 26th, local media including Philippine stars reported that the Senate’s ruling party leader Juan Zubiri and the opposition party leader Franklin Drillon each made a statement the day before and expressed opposition to the purchase of a Chinese-made sinovac vaccine.

They expressed concern over the fact that the Butantang Institute under the government of Sao Paulo, Brazil, which has been conducting a phase 3 clinical trial of the Synovac vaccine, said on the 23rd (local time) that the vaccine prevention effect exceeded 50%.

Rep. Jubi-ri accused him of “a plan to secure a vaccine with only 50% of the preventive effect is unacceptable,” and “it is funny that the possibility of getting Corona 19 even after vaccination is 50-50.”

Rep. Drillon also said that although securing a vaccine is urgent, safety and effectiveness must be considered first. He said that he should wait for guidance from the scientific community and certification agencies to decide whether to provide the synovac vaccine to the public.

The Philippines, which has the largest number of confirmed cases in Southeast Asia after Indonesia, of 467,000, is currently trying to secure vaccines against major pharmaceutical companies.

In addition to securing up to 25 million doses of vaccines from Modena and Arcturus in the United States in the second half of next year, it has announced that it plans to purchase 25 million doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine by March next year.

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