President Rodrigo Duterte (Malacañang photo)
During his taped briefing, Duterte explained there is no violation of the equal protection of the laws, which said that a government cannot deny people equal protection of its governing laws, when he approved the use of Western-made vaccine brands on seafarers since this is required by their employers.
Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have an efficacy rate of almost 95 percent in clinical trials, higher than that of Sinovac, the Chinese-made vaccine widely distributed in the Philippines.
“It is high time that the people would know or must know na itong lahat ng vaccine puro effective ‘yan (all of these vaccines are effective),” the Chief Executive said.
Chinese vaccines set to swarm developing world thestar.com.my - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thestar.com.my Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday, May 9, scored the inoculation of President Duterte with the Sinopharm vaccine despite it not having an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
VP Leni Robredo (Jansen Romero/Manila Bulletin) During her weekly
WHO Approves Emergency Use Listing for China’s Sinopharm CCP Virus Vaccine
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday approved China’s state-owned Sinopharm CCP virus vaccine for emergency use for adults over 18.
This comes despite concerns raised by a separate group of WHO experts who said they had “very low confidence” regarding the risk of serious side-effects in some patients.
The Sinopharm jab’s inclusion on the WHO’s emergency use listing allows it to be included in COVAX, a global program that provides vaccines mainly for poor countries.
“This expands the list of [COVID-19] vaccines that COVAX can buy, and gives countries confidence to expedite their own regulatory approval, and to import and administer a vaccine,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing.
A medical staff opens a box of the Chinese Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine. | Robert Atanasovski / AFP
The World Health Organization on Friday approved Chinese vaccine Sinopharm for emergency use in coronavirus patients.
This is the first vaccine developed by a non-Western country to get the global health body’s backing. The WHO had previously only approved the vaccines made by Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna.
A WHO emergency listing is a signal to national regulators that a product is safe and effective. It also allows the vaccine to be included in COVAX, the World Health Organization’s global initiative to promote equitable vaccine distribution around the world by supplying them to poorer nations.