THE Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) directed local government units (LGUs) on Thursday, May 20, not to announce the brand of vaccine to be used for inoculation to prevent the mass gatherings and long lines that occurred in various areas in the country when Pfizer doses were deployed.

DILG Secretary Eduardo Año made the order upon the recommendation of the Department of Health (DOH).

He said vaccine brands will be revealed to the vaccinee on-site and should the person refuse to accept the vaccine, he will have to go back to the back of the line.

He noted that all vaccines approved by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) have gone through a stringent approval process and are therefore safe and efficacious.

“The best vaccine is the one that is available; therefore in order to overcome brand preference, LGUs should not announce the brand of vaccine to be used in vaccination centers. Given that every single day of delay increases the risk of Covid transmission or infection, it is imperative the people get vaccinated immediately using the available vaccine,” said Año.

“We need to educate the people in order to overcome brand preference. All FDA-approved vaccines are just Emergency Use Authorization. They are all similarly situated. Our health experts have repeatedly said that there is none that is more effective than the other. All of them prevent hospitalization or critical illness from Covid. That is what is important,” he added.

As of May 18, a total of 7,779,050 Covid-19 vaccine doses from Pfizer, Sinovac Biotech, Aztrazeneca and Russia’s Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology have arrived in the country. Of the doses, 7,671,120 were already deployed across the country.

Another 500,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine arrived today, May 20.

A total of 786,528 individuals are already fully vaccinated while 2,512,942 got their first jab. (SunStar Philippines)