TAKING cue from the most recent development showing no link of the European-made doses to blood clots found in several patients abroad, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended the lifting of the suspension on the use of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to Filipinos.
In a Palace briefing, FDA director-general Eric Domingo said that he has already written a letter addressed to the Department of Health, asking for the continued use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine even as he cited there seems to be no connection of the vaccine to the patients who developed blood clots after being administered with the antidote.
“Sumulat ako kanina kay [Health] Secretary [Francisco] Duque para sabihin sa kanya, reiterate the benefit outweighs risk and we should continue using the vaccine,” Domingo said.
The DOH temporarily suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine on people younger than 60 upon the recommendation of the FDA as a precautionary measure following reports of rare blood clots in recipients abroad.
Domingo said the World Health Organization, Philippine Vaccine Expert Panel and the adverse events committee were “unanimous” – that the AstraZeneca vaccine’s overall benefit outweighs the known and potential risks.
“Dito sa atin wala pang nakita yung adverse events committee natin na similar cases. Pero sa Europa at saka sa ibang parte ng mundo, nakita na very rare naman ito,” added Domingo who said that the rare blood clots occurred in about 1 out of 1 million recipients.
As of this posting, the government has so far managed to inoculate 1.2 million Filipinos, representing one percent of the country’s total population. The country has logged 892,880 COVID-19 cases with 704,386 recoveries and 15,447 deaths as of Wednesday afternoon.