DOH shuns claim AstraZeneca vaccine ineffective vs. South Africa variant

The Department of Health said Saturday the rollout of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine should proceed, brushing aside claims that it is in effective against the South Africa variant of the coronavirus.

In an interview on Dobol B TV, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire echoed the World Health Organization’s stance that the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca is still effective in places with widespread transmission of the South Africa variant. 

“Kailangan maintindihan ng ating mga kababayan na those people talking like this are basing their assumptions on just one study wherein there is a very small population that was studied on,” Vergeire said.

“Therefore, the experts are saying that [one opinion] is not conclusive and there is no adequate evidence for us to say AstraZeneca will not be effective against this variant,” she pointed out.

On Wednesday, Molecular biologist and OCTA Research fellow Fr. Nicanor Austriaco claimed that the AstraZeneca jab is “no different [from] injecting water

The OCTA Research Group disagreed with Austriaco as it backed the WHO’s stance that the AstraZeneca vaccine is still effective against the South Africa variant. 

A study conducted by the University of Oxford found that a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca has been found to be “less effective” against the South Africa variant, according to a report by Reuters.

“Ang rekomendasyon ng WHO at ng ating mga expert ay ipagpatuloy ang pagbabakuna ng AstraZeneca at nandiyan na ang mga bakuna,” Vergeire said.

On Thursday night, the Philippines received its first shipment of 487,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the WHO-led COVAX Facility. —LBG, GMA News