Vice President Leni Robredo wants Sinovac’s CoronaVac to get a positive recommendation from the Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC) prior to its rollout.

In her Sunday radio show, Robredo said that the said COVID-19 vaccine from China only received emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) a week ago.

FDA did not recommend it for use on health workers with high exposure to the disease.

But the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) approved its use for healh workers based on the recommendation by National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAC) and Department of Health (DOH) Technical Advisory Group (TAG).

HTAC hasn’t given a positive recommendation for Sinovac yet.

How important is it to get a positive recommendation from HTAC? 

HTAC assesses all available vaccines approved by the FDA and crafts recommendations to the DOH as to which vaccines are most responsive, safe, and cost-effective for the people.

Robredo pointed out that opposition against Sinovac’s COVID-19 is not because it came from China but what is being opposed is Sinovac skipping a process.

She cited a provision under the Universal Health Care law which states that it needs a positive recommendation.

From the three COVID-19 vaccines that were given EUA by FDA, only Pfizer and AstraZeneca were given positive recommendations from HTAC.

Health care workers from the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) earlier protested on this.

Other government officials said there’s no need to get HTAC’s positive recommendation since the 600,000 doses from China were donations.

Robredo disagrees with this saying whether donated or purchased by the national government, the safety of those who will be receiving the jabs should be ensured.

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