Filipinos more willing to take COVID-19 vaccine than Dengvaxia — SWS
MANILA, Philippines — More than half of Filipinos are willing to be inoculated against coronavirus once a vaccine becomes available, a national pollster said Thursday night.
These findings come amid fears that the memory of a botched dengue vaccination program from three years ago will further complicate the national effort to vaccinate Filipinos against a deadly and lingering pandemic.
According to the Social Weather Stations, 66% of adult Filipinos in September said they were willing to be take a coronavirus vaccine — in stark contrast to 62% of respondents in a survey from last year who said that Dengvaxia should not even be sold in the Philippines.
In its September 2019 survey, SWS asked the 37% of respondents who either said Dengvaxia should be sold or were undecided on the issue if they would be willing to take the vaccine and only 42% of them said that they were.
"This shows that Filipinos are more willing to get the COVID-19 vaccine than they were to get Dengvaxia," the pollster said.
The remaining 31% of respondents, however, showed an unwillingness to be inoculated, with 14% saying "probably not" and 17% saying "definitely not" to the question of whether they would take a coronavirus vaccine.
Other findings
Willingness to be be inoculated against coronavirus is highest in Mindanao at 73%, SWS found, trailed by the Visayas at 69%, then Metro Manila at 64%, and Balance Luzon at 61%.
Men were also found by the survey to have a higher willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine at 71% compared to women among whom willingness to be vaccinated was at 60%.
By age group, those 25-34-year-olds posted the highest willingness to be inoculated at 70%.
By educational attainment, willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19 hardly varied, ranging from 59 to 67%.
The poll, SWS said, was conducted from September 17 to 20 this year using mobile phones and computer-assisted telephone interviewing. There were 1,249 adult Filipino respondents nationwide.
— Bella Perez-Rubio
Pharma giants Sanofi and GSK said on July 29, 2020, that they have agreed to supply Britain with up to 60 million doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine. The agreement covers a vaccine candidate developed by France's Sanofi in partnership with the UK's GSK and is subject to a "final contract."
This thread collects some of the major developments in the search for a vaccine to ease the new coronavirus pandemic. (Main photo by AFP/Joel Saget)
As negotiations towards a new pandemic treaty pick up pace, observers warn of watered-down efforts to ensure equitable access to the medical products needed to battle future Covid-like threats.
Shaken by the pandemic, the World Health Organization's 194 member states are negotiating an international accord aimed at ensuring countries are better equipped to deal with the next catastrophe, or even prevent it altogether.
The process is still in the early stages, with the aim of reaching an agreement by May 2024.
But critics warn that revisions being made to the preliminary negotiating text are weakening the language -- notably in a key area aimed at preventing the rampant inequity seen in access to vaccines and other medical products during the Covid pandemic.
"I think it is a real step backwards," Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute, told AFP. — AFP
Africa's first mRNA vaccine hub is ceremonially launched on Thursday to acclaim from the UN's global health chief, who hailed it as a historic shift to help poor countries gain access to life-saving jabs.
The facility was set up in the South African city of Cape Town in 2021 on the back of the success of revolutionary anti-Covid vaccines introduced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
"This precious project... will bring a paradigm shift in addressing the serious problem we faced, the equity problem, during the pandemic, so (that) it's not repeated again," World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tells a media briefing to mark the inauguration. — AFP
China has approved its first locally developed messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine against Covid-19, its manufacturer said Wednesday, months after the relaxation of strict Covid-zero regulations sparked a surge in cases.
The vaccine, developed by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd, has been approved for "emergency use" by Beijing's health regulator, the company said in a statement.
It showed high efficacy in a trial in which it was used as a booster shot for people who have been given other types of vaccines, the company added, without offering further details. — AFP
COVID-19 vaccine maker Novavax raises doubts about its ability to continue its business, announcing plans to cut spending after struggles in rolling out its coronavirus jab.
Shares of Novavax plummeted 25 percent in extended trading, after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed analyst estimates.
While the firm should have enough money to fund operations, the situation is "subject to significant uncertainty," it says in a statement. — AFP
The protection against Covid-19 from being previously infected lasts at least as long as that offered by vaccination, one of the largest studies conducted on the subject says.
Ten months after getting Covid, people still had an 88% lower risk of reinfection, hospitalisation and death, according to the study published in the Lancet journal.
That makes this natural immunity "at least as durable, if not more so" than two doses of Pfizer or Moderna's vaccines, the study says.
The authors nevertheless emphasized that their findings should not discourage vaccination, which remains the safest way to get immunity. — AFP
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