FDA assures safety, efficacy, quality of Covid-19 vaccines

MANILA – The country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has strictly evaluated the safety, efficacy, and quality of all possible coronavirus vaccines, Director-General Eric Domingo said on Friday.

“Maipapangako po sa inyo ng FDA na hindi kami papasa at papayag na magturok sa mga Pilipino ang bakuna hanggat hindi natin nasisigurado ‘yung safety, efficacy, at quality ng bakuna (We can promise you that the FDA will not approve and allow a vaccine to be injected to Filipinos without assuring its safety, efficacy, and quality,” Domingo said during the visit of the Covid-19 Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic (CODE) team in Manila City.

Domingo assured that all the vaccine candidates will undergo stringent regulation assessment and screening of experts and the FDA.

“Sigurado po ‘yan pagdadaanan po ng lahat ng eksperto niyo (I assure you it will go through the experts),” he said. “Wala po kaming ginawa kundi magtingin ng scientific evidence on safety and efficacy and quality (We did nothing but look at the scientific evidence on safety and efficacy and quality).

He said he will not approve a vaccine without considering it for personal use.

“Kailangan yung papayagan natin ay ‘yung payag nating iturok sa sarili natin. Hindi po ako magpapasa ng bakuna na hindi ko ituturok sa sarili kong mga magulang (We should only allow those vaccines that we are willing to inject within ourselves. I will not pass a vaccine without using it with my own parents),” Domingo said.

He urged the public not to worry about the safety and efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccines.

“Kaya po ‘pag nakarating po sa inyo ‘yun [bakuna], ‘wag po kayong mangamba, inaral po talaga natin yun at sisiguraduhin po talaga namin (Once the vaccine arrives in the country, don’t worry, we really studied about it and we make sure it’s safe),” he said.

Meanwhile, Domingo said the nationwide vaccination program should be a joint effort of the national government and local government units (LGUs).

“Talagang nakalasalalay po sa local governments yan (It really depends on the local governments),” Domingo said. “Kailangan yung cold-chain storage ay effective, efficient at hindi talagang hindi mapapabayaan (Cold-chain storage needs to be effective, efficient and should be monitored).”

He cited around 80 million people worldwide have already been vaccinated with Covid-19 jabs.

“Marami na rin tayong natutunan kung ano yung mga dapat nating pag-ingatan pero pag nagbakuna po tayo talagang yung monitoring at surveillance natin kailangan very close (Also, we already learned a lot about things we should carefully consider once we start the vaccination, we need a very close monitoring and surveillance),” Domingo said, adding that the adverse events following inoculation of the patients shall be closely monitored.