COVID-19 vaccine brand to be announced on-site: DILG

Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said Thursday that the COVID-19 vaccine brand would be announced on the jab site.

According to DILG Secretary Eduardo Año, local government units (LGUs) would not be required to announce the COVID-19 vaccine brand available.

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 Año assured the public that all vaccines “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,” he said.

DILG will later issue an advisory to all LGUs.

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“The person will be informed of the brand in the vaccination center, and he will have to give his informed consent, but if he refuses, he will have to go back to the back of the line,” he said.

Año explained that the measure is only done so the mass gathering of people wanting to get a specific COVID-19 vaccine such as Pfizer would be prevented.

COVID-19 vaccine brand to be announced on-site: DILG

“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,” Año said.

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“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.

The Department of Health earlier suggested that the  vaccine brands available in jab sites should not be announced.

According to Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, this would prevent people from crowding and favoring any vaccine brand such as U.S.-made Pfizer.

“Maybe one of the strategies that can be made is hindi na ia-announce kung anong bakuna ang ibibigay. Kung gusto ninyo magpabakuna, pumunta kayo sa ganitong facility o kaya  tapos kung ano ‘yung bakuna na available ‘yun ang dapat kunin nila,” she said in a Laging Handa public briefing.

“Kung anong bakuna ang available, dapat kunin mo na. That will help the flow,” she added.

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