Presidential adviser Concepcion laments 'exaggerated' suspension of AstraZeneca vaccine use

Presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion on Friday lamented the suspension on the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine for people under 60 years old in the country, calling it "exaggerated."

Interviewed on Dobol B TV, Concepcion insisted that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh its risk.

"'Yung UK, ang ginawa nila 30 years old and below. Sa atin dito, sobrang exaggerated. Buti ba kung marami tayong vaccine. Pakaunti-kaunti lang nga ang vaccine natin  ngayon,” he said.

[In the UK, they suspended the vaccination for people below 30 years old. Here, it was very exaggerated. That is okay if we have many vaccines, but  but we don't.)

The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday suspended the use of AstraZeneca vaccine for individuals aged below 60 years old following reports of rare blood clots with low platelet counts in some recipients overseas.

Concepcion said that risk is very rare, noting that there were only four incidents of blood clot out of 1 million recipients.

"As of the moment, the Philippines has inoculated more than 500,000 individuals using the same vaccines. And if there are any extreme adverse effects, we should know them by now," he said in a statement.

"Also, countries like Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, and many others have made no restrictions except for the UK, which restricts ages below 30," he added.

The private sector already secured around 5.5 million to 6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca to help the government in its inoculation program, according to Concepcion. He also said local government units also bought 11 million doses from the manufacturer.

Concepcion pointed out that people under 60 are a huge part of the workforce.

Concepcion said there are around 4 million doses from AstraZeneca that are set to be delivered to the country from the COVAX Facility.

In total, around 21 million COVID-19 vaccines dedicated to the country are from AstraZeneca, which can cover around 10 million Filipinos, he said.

The country targets to vaccinate around 70 million to reach herd immunity to stop the further spread of COVID-19.

Due to this, Concepcion called on the FDA and DOH to reconsider their decision.

"It's important to note that the majority of the workforce in the private sector as well as LGUs belong to the age group below 60, so this greatly affects our population," he said.

"Vaccinating Filipinos is critical to our national health and recovery, and failing to meet these goals will have a direct hit on the economy." —KBK, GMA News