(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte said that senators who had been criticizing government negotiators and even health officials for including vaccines made by China in the Philippine government’s vaccine acquistiion program should look into recent reports about deaths associated with the Pfizer vaccine.
Duterte in his latest Talk to the Nation revealed the news on more than 20 elderly people who died in Norway shortly after receiving Pfizer vaccines.
“Gusto nyo yung Pfzer kayong mga senador? In Norway, 25 persons died after receiving Pfizer vaccination. Gusto nyo mag-order kami para sa inyo?” Duterte said on Monday night, Jan. 18, in his televised address after meeting with the cabinet members on the health situation in the country amid the pandemic.
“Lahat kayo apparently, mas bilib kayo sa …” the President said as he read the latest news connected with the deaths in Norway.
The Norwegian Medicines Agency reported the 23 deaths in its latest update regarding those who had been administered the vaccines against COVID-19. The report was first released on Jan. 15 and updated on Jan. 18.
“The Norwegian Medicines Agency is transparent about reports of suspected adverse reactions during covid-19 vaccination and publishes weekly updates,” the agency said in its website. It said that it gives these updates to “provide an overview of reported suspected adverse events after vaccination in Norway.”
The agency said that as of January 14, there were “23 reports of suspected deaths associated with covid-19 vaccines” that have been submitted to the Norwegian ADR health registry.
“The reports suggest that common adverse reactions to mRNA vaccines, such as fever and nausea, may have contributed to a fatal outcome in some frail patients”, said Sigurd Hortemo, chief physician at the Norwegian Medicines Agency.
The report came in the agency’s official website.
-Duterte recalls talk with China’s President on vaccines-
President Duterte then explained why the Philippines was able to deal early with China’s Sinovac BioNTech, the developer of the vaccine CoronaVac.
He said that he had talked early on with China’s President Xi Jinping on getting vaccines against COvid-19 from China.
“Please do not forget the Philippines,” he recalled telling the Chinese President,
Duterte said that the Chinese leader told him that China would first innoculate their people first.
Recently, China had assured the Philippines it will give the country half a million vaccine doses on top of the negotiated doses with the Philippine government by the vaccine manufacturers.
Unlike the Pfizer vaccine, Sinovac’s CoronaVac uses inactivated virus to elicit an immune response. It is the oldest and traditional platform for vaccines, experts say, which is similar to how flu vaccines are developed, and are therefore long proven to be safe.
On the other hand, Pfizer’s mRNA technology is a newer technology.
-Norway assessing deaths after vaccine shots-
The Norwegian Medicines Agency said that in its reported updated this Monday, Jan. 18, that it is currently assessing “all deaths that occur within the first few days of vaccination.”
It said that in Norway, those given COVID-19 vaccine shots included the elderly and people in nursing homes with underlying diseases. It said that it was therefore “expected that deaths close to the time vaccination may occur.”
It further noted that an average of 400 people die in nursing homes and long-term care facilities each week.
“We cannot rule out that adverse reactions to the vaccine occurring within the first days following vaccination (such as fever and nausea) may contribute to more serious course and fatal outcome in patients with severe underlying disease,” it said.
(Eagle News Service)
