By Alec Go and NG Seruela
The Philippines’ vaccination program is well underway as the volume of COVID-19 vaccines increases from its first arrival in the country in March to the present month.
As of May 23, 4,097,425 doses have been administered nationwide to beneficiaries belonging to priority groups A1 to A4 or health workers, senior citizens, persons with comorbidities, and other essential workers.
Despite the hesitancy among some individuals due to the fear of very rare side effects, many senior citizens, including prominent individuals, have willingly volunteered to get vaccinated as an added protection against COVID-19 and its complications.
Senior citizens get jabbed
On May 22, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said he and his wife Helen Gamboa got vaccinated with Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac, saying that “it’s a blessing to get vaccinated regardless of the brand.”
Actress Angel Locsin also said her parents got vaccinated on April 16, while veteran actor Tirso Cruz got his second shot on May 16.
In an interview, Veronica Zalun, 69 years old, said she decided to get vaccinated for protection against the virus. “Protection. Sabi nila kahit na ikaw ay mahawa[an ng COVID-19], hindi siya ganoon kalala kaysa doon sa walang vaccine.”
The 69-year-old said she did not feel any adverse reactions following immunization.
“Wala naman. High blood pa nga ako, pero wala namang [malalang] epekto sa akin.”
On May 19, a centenarian received her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. She said she wants to serve as an example to the Filipino people that having a vaccine is safer than not having any protection at all against the deadly virus.
READ MORE: 103-year old Filipina gets her first shot of COVID-19 vaccine
Senior citizens are the “best candidates” for inoculation
University of the Philippines Manila-National Health Institute on Aging Director Dr. Shelley Ann dela Vega said in a forum that senior citizens are the “best candidates” for the COVID-19 vaccination since they are more at risk of acquiring severe COVID-19 or death due to their age and other possible comorbidities.
Below are several reasons why senior citizens are among the best candidates for inoculation:
- Vaccines are safe for their age
Many health experts assert that the COVID-19 vaccines given an emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are safe and effective based on the available evidence presented to the agency.
Information on the Department of Health (DOH) website states that the following vaccines are to be used by individuals aged 59 and above:
- Pfizer-BioNTech – 16 years old and above
- AstraZeneca – 18 years old and above
- Sinovac – 18 to 59 years old
- Gameleya Sputnik V – 18 years old and above
According to the DOH, vaccines are “some of the most rigorously tested medical products to date.” It assured that the national government will not procure unsafe and ineffective vaccines.
“Gusto nating ipagbigay-alam sa ating mga kababayan, na ang atin pong gobyerno ay hindi papayag na bibili tayo ng mga bakuna na hindi ligtas at hindi magiging epektibo para sa ating mga kababayan,” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a forum.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also explained that the vaccines were “evaluated in tens of thousands of participants in the clinical trials” before releasing it to the public.
2. It prevents severe COVID-19
Based on DOH data, Sinovac’s CoronaVac, which is currently being used in the country, has a 65 to 91% efficacy based on trials conducted in Brazil, Indonesia, and Turkey.
Epidemiologist Dr. John Wong also explained during a DOH online forum on February 26 that the efficacy of the vaccine is high against severe illness.
“Overall efficacy is 50.3% but among those that have more severe disease, so moderate disease 78%, and for severe disease, 100%,” Wong said.
Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine also has a reported 70.4% efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 and offers 100% protection versus severe COVID-19. The two-component Sputnik V of Gamaleya Institute also has a reported 91.6% protection against symptomatic COVID-19 and full protection against severe COVID-19.
Moreover, Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has 95% efficacy in protecting against symptomatic COVID-19, while Moderna has 94.1%. A study shared by CDC early this month showed that “receipt of Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines was 94% effective against COVID-19 hospitalization among fully vaccinated adults and 64% effective among partially vaccinated adults aged ≥65 years.”
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist, said in an episode of WHO’s Science in 5 on COVID-19 on March 19 that the “majority of the vaccines are extremely effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalization, and death.”
“The more people get vaccinated and build up their immunity against the virus, the less the chances of the virus replicating, growing, increasing, and spreading from person to person and thereby we’re actually reducing the chances of more mutations and more variants,” she said.
3. Blood clotting is not common
Dr. Anna Lisa Ong-Lim, an infectious disease specialist, said in a media briefing on May 22 that the country has not yet recorded any blood clotting incident following immunization.
She said there is a possible link between vaccine side effects and a certain ethnic population amid reported incidents in some European countries.
“It seems like marami sa Caucasian population. Sa ibang mga bansa sa Asya na gumagamit ng bakunang ito (AstraZeneca), parang wala rin tayong naririnig. That’s good news for us, but we continue to monitor para siguradong walang problema,” she said.
Dr. Edsel Salvana, another infectious disease expert, said in a briefing on May 24 that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh its potential risks, noting that the risk for clotting with COVID infection is one out of three compared to the 10 per million ratio for vaccines.
In terms of the Johnson & Johnson or Janssen COVID-19 vaccine, the CDC said women younger than 50 years old have higher risk of rare blood clotting with low platelets than elderlies.
“This adverse event is rare, occurring at a rate of about 7 per 1 million vaccinated women between 18 and 49 years old. For women 50 years and older and men of all ages, this adverse event is even more rare,” it said.
4. Possible protection vs. new variants
The DOH said there are data suggesting that vaccines offer protection against emerging COVID-19 variants, but more studies are ongoing to prove this.
“A small in vitro study showed that antibodies from people given the BNT162b2 (Pfizer) vaccine were able to neutralize SARS-CoV-2 variants with the N501Y mutation (this was not the UK variant B.1.1.7, which had more mutations). It seems very likely that the other vaccines will result in the same findings, based on expert opinion,” it stated.
The WHO said mutations would not render vaccines “completely ineffective” because vaccines “create a broad immune response.”
“If any of these vaccines become less effective against one or more variants, it will be possible to change the composition of the vaccines to protect against these variants,” it added.
5. Common side effects are mild
The DOH said among the common adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccines are tenderness, pain, warmth, redness, itching or swelling on the arm where you got the injection, generally feeling unwell, fatigue, chills or feeling feverish, headache, and joint pain or muscle ache.
The department said these are signs that the “body is building protection against COVID-19,” which should go away in one to three days.
“If you have pain at the injection site or fever, headaches, or body aches after vaccination, you can choose to take acetaminophen or ibuprofen. These will help reduce the above symptoms. If there is swelling at the injection site, you can also use a cold compress,” it advised.
In an interview, Mr. Poe, a 62 year old AstraZeneca vaccine recipient in Apayao on May 20, said he did not experience any side effects of the vaccine yet. This is similar to the case of Ms. Vina, a fully vaccinated 60 year old Coronavac recipient in Caloocan, who said the only effect she felt was pain in the injection site.
“Siyempre naman, inirerekomenda ko [ang pagpapabakuna] para proteksyon sa lumalaganap na virus… Hindi man fully protected, kahit papaano mayroon pa din,” she said.
6. Severe side effects are very rare
The DOH, CDC, and WHO said severe reactions to vaccines such as anaphylaxis and blood clotting, and those that cause “long-term health problems are extremely unlikely.”
Dr. Katherine O’Brien, a vaccinologist and professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, clarified in a WHO explainer on February 5 that vaccines cannot cause infertility and messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines do not change human DNA cells.
“Before they’re ever given to a human, they’re tested in animals and they’re tested for any kind of problem in the animal. And only then do they go into humans where we test in clinical trials with tens of thousands of people receiving the vaccines eventually before they’re authorized for use in the general public,” O’Brien said.
She also labelled as a myth the claim that chemicals in vaccines will harm recipients, and assured that “all the components that go into vaccines are heavily tested.”
The WHO and other stringent regulatory bodies have continuously reiterated that approved vaccines don’t contain live viruses, which means that vaccines cannot cause the development of COVID-19.
In case of unusual effects such as difficulty breathing, wheezing, swelling of the face, and tightening of the throat, the DOH advises the affected vaccine recipient to head to the hospital. The government will cover expenses for hospitalization and treatment for adverse events through PhilHealth.
7. Senior citizens are vulnerable and they need protection
According to the DOH, people with comorbidities and the elderly population “are most likely to develop [a] severe or critical form of COVID-19.”
The CDC said 8 out 10 reported deaths in the US due to COVID-19 are adults over 65 years of age. It also noted that the risk of severe illness which requires hospitalization, intensive care, and ventilators, increases with age.
Dr. Mark Supiano, a geriatrician in the United States, said in a panel hosted by University of Utah Health that was shared on its website on January 22, that 70% of COVID-19 deaths in Utah over the past year were people aged 65 years and older.
“Whether individuals who are in this age group who have multiple chronic conditions, who may be frail, or living in a nursing home environment ,if they should receive the vaccine —all the more so,” he said.
In terms of CoronaVac, Dr. Rontgene Solante of the Department of Science and Technology vaccine expert panel said in an interview with ANC in April that he is recommending the product for individuals above 60 years old.
“The risk of transmission is really very high in this NCR [National Capital Region] bubble, and we have to find a logical solution, and getting this Sinovac vaccine is an option,” he said. -jlo
