Not enough

It's the AstraZeneca vaccine's turn to be under the microscope. Denmark, Iceland, and Norway (not Norwegia, my goodness) halted the use of the company's vaccine after reports some of the recipients developed clots. A recipient in Italy died after developing deep vein thrombosis after receiving the vaccine. But there are no indications the vaccine directly caused the deaths and the mentioned side effects. Sounds familiar, right? But in their case, they don't have a crusader against the vaccine. Because of the developments in Denmark, Iceland, and Norway, other countries in Europe have likewise suspended its use. But the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the UK’s regulatory body have said that "there is no indication that vaccination is linked to thromboembolic events." Investigations are ongoing to determine if the vaccine did cause side effects that led to the deaths. The company is naturally adamant its vaccine is safe to use.

I'm not surprised why vaccines come under scrutiny now that many have started inoculating their respective citizens. Everything from side effects to supposed deaths after vaccination will raise flags. As a comparison, we haven't heard anything yet from those who received the Sinovac vaccine from China, despite its low efficacy rate. AstraZeneca has likewise reached our shores via COVAX. Because of the concerns brought about by the events in Europe, The DOH and FDA have stated the vaccine will still be administered.

This is a case of the benefits greatly outweighing the effects. Something the Dengvaxia issue did not address at all. Instead, the whole issue was politicized and even weaponized during an election period. No studies have been made if areas, where Dengvaxia was administered, saw a decrease in the number of cases. Remember, 830,000 were supposed to have received the vaccine. Did they benefit from the jab? Anyone else aside from the cases handled by the Public Attorney's Office has any issues?

We have to understand all vaccines coming out have been developed at comparatively breakneck speed owing to the global pandemic COVID-19 has caused. With economies starting to spiral down, a vaccine was needed to bring things back to normal. But even so, the virus is proving to be a challenge with the emergence of variants. This coronavirus has not been fully studied or understood, so a vaccine providing complete immunity may still be far off. What the current vaccines want to achieve is to slow down the infection rate and buy more time to further study the virus.

And slow down the infection rate is exactly what we need. The past week has seen more than 3,000 infections per day reaching as high as 5,000. If countries in Europe have suspended the use of AstraZeneca, then we should ask for the unused vaccines and put them to good use. The initial number of vaccines the country received is not even enough for our medical frontliners, especially if there are those already cutting the line.