Dear Manang,
I don’t know what to think now that there are questions about the vaccines that have been used and the adverse effects. What should I do, particularly with the complications of being a diabetic and a senior? I missed the first notice of the vaccination in my barangay and I am not comfortable with totally missing it and the fear of dying because of it. What about you?
Siony of Asin Road, Baguio City
Dear Siony,
Let me just share these info bits regarding the available vaccines. “Many vaccines use weakened or inactivated versions or components of the disease-causing pathogen to stimulate the body’s immune response. However, the vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna take advantage of messenger RNA (mRNA), which instructs cells to produce a protein on the surface of the virus. The immune system recognizes those vaccine-triggered spike proteins as invaders and creates antibodies to block future attacks of the virus that causes Covid-19.”
“Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax are all U.S.-based companies. The J&J vaccine was developed by researchers at Harvard University and in Leiden, Netherlands. Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, developed its vaccine in collaboration with U.S. government scientists. The AstraZeneca vaccine was developed by the University of Oxford and its spin-off company, Vaccitech. BioNTech, a biotechnology company based in Mainz, Germany, partnered with Pfizer to test and produce its vaccine.”
“On Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, on Nov. 11, 2020 Russia’s National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, which Russia authorized for use in August – ahead of even beginning a phase 3 trial – claimed had an efficacy rate of 92 percent after the second dose. It was based on a first interim analysis 21 days after the first injection during the ongoing phase 3 study. On Nov. 24, 2020 the organization claimed 95 percent efficacy based on new preliminary data. On Dec. 14, 2020, they reported efficacy of 91.4 percent. It also offered to share one of its two human adenoviral vectors with AstraZeneca to increase the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine.”
“The efficacy of the Sinovac vaccine (officially named CoronaVac, but more popularly known by the name of its developer Beijing-based biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech Limited) has been found to be 50.4 percent in preventing symptomatic Covid-19 by researchers in Brazil.
The director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention himself has said that “Chinese vaccines don’t have very high protection rates”, and that the Chinese government is considering mixing the vaccines to give their efficacy a boost.”
“You should not consider this number on its own, but compare it to the results of the other clinical trials that have been announced. Ultimately, a meta-analysis of all the clinical trials should be done to group all the results together and determine the true efficacy of the vaccine.
This is as the larger the number of people tested, the more accurate the results will be. Let us take a deeper look at the Brazilian results. It is 50.4 percent in preventing symptomatic infections.
However, it is 78 percent effective in preventing mild cases that require some form of treatment, and 100 percent effective in preventing severe cases of Covid-19.This means that if you get the Sinovac vaccine, you are virtually guaranteed not to develop a severe case of Covid-19.”
I can only share the information and hope that it helps you to decide whether or not you want to get the vaccine.
Choose well,
Manang
