Only 19 percent of adult Filipinos are inclined to getting the COVID-19 jab while 46 percent are unwilling to be inoculated even with an effective vaccine, a recent survey of the OCTA Research shows.
The ‘Tugon ng Masa’ survey among 1,200 respondents found that 46% will choose not to get vaccinated. Thirty-five percent or, roughly a third, are undecided if they will get immunized.
Topping the area with low vaccine confidence are those in Balance Luzon (14%), Visayas (20%), Metro Manila (25%), and Mindanao (26%).
Class D (18%) is slightly lower than those of Class ABC and Class E, both at 23% when it comes to the intention of getting immunized.
The survey also found that vaccines developed by American drugmakers are the preferred choice of Filipinos at 41%, followed by those coming from the United Kingdom (25%), and India (17%).
The Agency Task Force (IATF), together with its own expert panel, has approved the use of Sinovac vaccines against COVID-19 for healthcare workers on Friday.
In a press briefing, Health spokesperson Ma. Rosario Vergeire said members of the IATF approved the recommendation of experts from the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) and Department of Health-Technical Advisory Group (TAG), who recommended the use of Sinovac for healthcare workers.
“Just this morning we presented to the IATF and we got the approval already. So this would also be presented to the President but right now we can see all of these members approved the NITAG recommendation already,” Vergeire said.
The DOH said that Sinovac “will be beneficial for the healthcare workers.”
Clinical data showed that Sinovac is 50 percent effective in preventing mild symptoms, and 100 percent effective in moderate and severe symptoms.
“Given this evidence, the NITAG and the TAG have deemed it sufficient to recommend the use of the vaccine for healthcare workers as it bears to reiterate that our goal for prioritizing healthcare workers for vaccination is to reduce morbidity and mortality among their group while they maintain the most critical essential health services,” Vergeire said.
The Food and Drug Administration’s Emergency Use Authorization also showed that the Chinese-made vaccines are effective in reducing deaths caused by COVID-19.
