Health authorities must send a strong message that lining up for COVID vaccination and getting your first dose won’t confer immunity from infection.
Those belonging to the vulnerable sectors – the elderly and people with comorbidities – must be extra careful in observing distancing and avoiding prolonged exposure in any venue.
Having personally known individuals who got infected while getting their shots in crowded vaccination centers, with one even dying after his first dose, it’s distressing for me to watch those large crowds jostling to get the Pfizer/BioNTech jab.
Epidemiologists say you need only 15 minutes of sustained exposure to catch the COVID virus. A vaccination center is not guaranteed to be COVID-free. And extra care is needed because the virus is airborne, as the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
I know a woman who didn’t know she had COVID because she was asymptomatic, and got vaccinated. Since you’re getting injected with the virus to stimulate the creation of antibodies, she must have had a virus surge. Her asymptomatic infection turned severe and she had to spend a month in the hospital. Luckily for her, she’s healthy and young enough and survived. But how many people could she have infected at the vaccination site?
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Considering the risk of infection in crowded, enclosed spaces, the national and local governments should ensure sufficient outdoor ventilation and optimum adherence to physical distancing, mask wearing and other safety protocols in any vaccination site.
Holding vaccinations inside moviehouses seems to be a bad idea. The enclosed environment allows pathogens to circulate, and cinema seats, while comfortable for watching films, trap dust and all sorts of germs.
A better option is drive-through vaccination. That drive-through site in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, which allows the elderly to get their jabs without leaving their vehicles including tricycles, should be replicated.
Dr. Nina Gloriani, head of the Vaccine Expert Panel of the Department of Science and Technology, told us on One News’ “The Chiefs” last Tuesday that the government has started training pharmacists to administer COVID vaccines. She said that someday, as in the US, the vaccines might also be available in Philippine drug stores. Undergraduates of healthcare courses will also be tapped to assist, to speed up vaccination once the needed jabs arrive.
There’s a continuing debate about mega vaccination sites. There is concern that such large venues mean long lines and waiting times, which heighten infection risk. Questions have also been raised on the availability of healthcare workers for the sites.
The mega vaccination center at the Nayong Pilipino property is also being hit for the planned razing of trees to make way for the center. The site is also inaccessible to mass transportation.
Testing czar Vince Dizon told The Chiefs Wednesday night that such mega centers are ideal in countries that are just starting to vaccinate, and which need to administer the jabs to as many people as possible ASAP.
When a majority of the population has received the shots, then smaller operations such as those in drive-throughs and pharmacies become ideal options, he says.
The Nayong Pilipino site, Dizon explained, is meant for large groups that can be transported through shuttles. The center is located near a quarantine facility in a cleared area.
As for the trees to be affected, Dizon echoed the sentiment of the project’s proponent, billionaire Enrique Razon Jr., who said these are mainly quick-growing wild ipil-ipil. Dizon said the trees probably sprung around the vacant lot out of seeds from bird droppings – “naiputan lang.” The description won’t endear Dizon to environmentalists, but the government has made up its mind and the project has received the green light, in the name of public health.
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With the variant-fueled COVID surge still raging in Mega Manila and now spreading in 10 other regions, it looks like we’re on track in achieving herd immunity, by November or even earlier. Not the immunity conferred by vaccines, but the natural immunity that a member of the OCTA Research team warned about, in jest, at the height of the surge that began in late March.
In the continuing surge, we’re seeing several super spreader events, not only in resorts and in the streets, but even in vaccination centers.
To discourage such events, the government said it would prohibit the disclosure of the vaccine brand to be administered. Mayor Marcy Teodoro of Marikina has balked at the order. Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco also told us on The Chiefs that his constituents are allowed to choose their vaccine brand.
Amid protests, the government said yesterday people would still be informed of the vaccine they would be getting – but only as they reach the inoculation site.
Gloriani repeatedly stresses that all COVID vaccines approved for emergency use in the country by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been properly vetted.
Filipinos, however, get information from many other sources, and are aware of the verified or peer-vetted efficacies as well as possible side effects of the existing COVID vaccines.
People know that the vaccines with the highest verified efficacies are those produced by Pfizer followed by Moderna. The two have also been reported to work against the COVID variants.
Peer-reviewed Sputnik V of Russia’s Gamaleya is also in high demand. The long lines for inoculation in the Philippines were first seen when the limited supply of Sputnik V was rolled out.
Filipino brand preference seems to be neutral for British-Swedish AstraZeneca’s jab. The preference – or, as Malacañang calls it, choosiness – is manifested only when it comes to CoronaVac, the jab developed by private Chinese biotech firm Sinovac.
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The WHO has approved for emergency use a China-made vaccine – not CoronaVac, but the jab developed by Chinese state-owned Sinopharm.
President Duterte picked Sinopharm as his vaccine, and got his shot from a batch of 1,000 doses donated by Beijing and approved by the FDA for compassionate use by his presidential guards.
This has raised the question: if the President can choose his vaccine brand – one that doesn’t even have emergency use authorization yet from the Philippine FDA – why can’t ordinary Filipinos?
With Duterte as chooser-in-chief, is choosiness a privilege only of those in power?
I’m choosing my vaccine brand, mainly because I have a serious risk of anaphylaxis. So I’m not one of those clamoring to get the Pfizer shot; there is a warning about possible severe allergic reaction to this vaccine.
What I will be more choosy about is the venue of my vaccination. Either I wait for our office jabs, or I’m going to a drive-through.