Buying Sinovac vaccine with 50% efficacy is pointless —lawmaker

Acquiring Sinovac anti-COVID vaccine is "nonsense" if it has only 50% efficacy based on a late-stage trial in Brazil, Agusan del Norte First District Representative Lawrence Fortun said Saturday.

"I categorically reject the Sinovac vaccine from China. I will not take it, nor will I allow any of my family to take it out of my love for them,"  said Fortun, also a minority member of the Committee on Justice, in a statement.

Fortun commended the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to publicly disclosing the results, as the agency supposedly stated that Sinovac is "at the minimum range" compared to other vaccines.

Fortun urged the public to express to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) and to Malacañang what vaccine they prefer to be administered to them against COVID-19.

"At this point, the Filipino needs only common sense to compare the choices," he said, as he cited that  The vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna have up to 95 percent and 94 percent efficacy respectively based on Phase 3 clinical trial results.

Further, Sinovac has yet to complete its Phase 3 testing, and its vaccine had about the same costing with those with 94% to 95% efficacy.

"It would be nonsense of Filipinos and of their government to choose the China vaccine at this point. Simply out of the question," Fortun said.

"Our government must not give in to any overture, pressure, or campaigning by the Chinese government, the Chinese embassy, or any of their proxies," he added, as he urged the government to abandon any prior verbal agreement they may have and "politely decline" offers from Sinovac.

"No sane Filipino should allow himself or herself to be injected with a vaccine like Sinovac which barely hurdled the minimum standards," Fortun said.

At a public briefing on Thursday, DOST – Philippine Council for Health Research Development executive director Jaime Montoya said the over 50% efficacy result of Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccines in a late-stage trial in Brazil meets the minimum requirement of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Montoya said the efficacy rate may still change with more people receiving the vaccines.

“The 50 percent efficacy is acceptable because that is the minimum requirement set by the World Health Organization for a vaccine to be used by a country,” Montoya said. —LBG, GMA News