Covid vaccines are not for sale — DOH

THE Department of Health (DoH) has maintained that no coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines in the country will be sold commercially and that the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of its emergency use is proof of safety.

According to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, under the terms of the emergency use authorization (EUA), vaccines “sold” either through online or offline resellers are questionable.

“Kapag may nagbebenta sa inyo na bakuna, alalahanin nyo na wala pa hong binibigyan ng authority na magbenta commercially, ibig sabihin yang bakunang yan, might be galing sa ‘backdoor’ or walang registration ng FDA at malamang po yan ay fake (If someone sells you a vaccine, you should remember that there is no authority yet to sell these commercially, meaning that these vaccines might have come from ‘backdoor’ and it did not have an FDA registration, which means that it might be fake),” Vergeire said during a media forum on Friday.

She added that vaccines that are being sold may also cause more harm than its intended effect of protecting oneself from Covid-19.

Vergeire said that a vaccine that was given EUA is enough guarantee that it will be safe and effective.

“Lahat po ng ibinibigay ng gobyerno sa ating mga kababayan has undergone the regulatory process from the FDA, mayroon din pong vetting din ng ating mga eksperto, (All [vaccines] that the government is giving to our countrymen has undergone the regulatory process of the FDA and there is also vetting from our vaccine experts), ” she added.

Currently, four vaccines have been given EUA in the country: the tozinameran vaccine of Pfizer and BioNTech SE, the AZD1222 vaccine of AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, CoronaVac of Sinovac Biotech and the Sputnik V vaccine of the Gamaleya Research Institute.