Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto’s proposed “vaccine czar” for the country should have extensive leadership experience in domestic and international logistics, said public health expert Anthony Leachon.
He says the logistical requirements are massive, rapid and unprecedented, and “we have a very low logistical base against the ultra-freezing storage requirements of the vaccines.
The government should get seasoned private corporate/medical and public experts with the same level of competence and experience. This needs the whole of the government and the whole of society support.
“Get the top guy of LBC, Fedex or DHL. Or even Zuellig. This is the top logistics challenge for the Philippines. We are quite late in forming a composite team given the global competition for the vaccine,” Leachon said.
“And we don’t want a Repeat of the dengvaxia controversy,” added Leachon as he cited the need For the government to have multiple deals with global companies other than the Russian and Chinese vaccines since phase 3 trials were about to be finished by November and December.
He says the Russian and Chinese vaccine trials are about to start this last quarter and the results might be out by the second quarter of next year.
“We have no assurance of the results of the trials,” Leachon said amid the commitment of the Russian and Chinese governments to give priority to the Philippines once the vaccines against COVID-19 were available.
In a Kilkovid statement, Leachon said the use of a vaccine was the final phase in combating the COVID-19 pandemic and normalizing the lives of the people and the Philippine economy. However, he said, the choice, use and distribution of a vaccine must be deliberate and meticulously planned.
Leachon said in the United States, as new cases of the pandemic surged, its own Food and Drug Administration was under increasing pressure to permit the wider use of a COVID-19 vaccine through a so-called emergency use authorization, which would use preliminary data from vaccine efficacy trials to shave many months off the standard approval process.
“We understand that the US FDA guidance issued in June says the agency will consider issuing an EUA for a vaccine if it shows at least 50 percent effectiveness at trials,” Leachon said.
“But even the US FDA’s vaccine division cautioned that permitting the use of a weakly effective Covid-19 vaccine could do more harm than good because of its impact on the trials of other candidates and by providing a false sense of security that interferes with measures to reduce Covid-19 transmission, such as effective non-medical interventions like wearing masks and social distancing.”
Leachon also mentioned the possibility of approving a vaccine for “expanded access,” which would limit the use of experimental treatments in patients who had life-threatening conditions. This approach had the advantage of allowing efficacy trials for other vaccine candidates to continue.
“Even as we are optimistic that the early use of a vaccine will revive our ailing economy, that optimism must be tempered by our obligation to protect our people by choosing the safest and effective vaccine,” Leachon said.
“We do not want a repeat of the national scandal involving the Dengvaxia school vaccination program where the DOH spent $67 Million and which has been linked to the deaths of children. This would create widespread distrust of our government and health care system.”