Philippines Won’t Tell Citizens Which Vaccine Brand They Receive Before Appointment

The Philippine federal government ordered local clinics not to disclose which brand of Chinese coronavirus vaccine a person will receive until he or she arrives for a vaccine appointment, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported Tuesday.

The Philippine federal government on May 20 ordered local health officials not to reveal which brand of vaccine a Chinese coronavirus vaccination center offers until the center’s patients arrive for their appointments to “overcome” preferences for Western vaccines. The edict followed overcrowding incidents at two shopping malls in the national capital area on May 19 in which thousands of people descended upon vaccine sites in Manila and Parañaque city after local health officials announced that the sites would offer doses of the Chinese coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer, a U.S.-based multinational pharmaceutical company.

The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) representative to the Philippines, Rabindra Abeyasinghe, said on Monday he supported Manila’s decision to withhold information regarding a vaccine’s brand from patients until moments before they receive a coronavirus inoculation.

“I think this is a correct step in the right direction because this will help us to manage these kinds of superspreader events from happening and will also encourage people to accept the vaccines that are being rolled out. So we are supportive of this effort,” Abeyasinghe said at a press briefing led by the Philippines’ presidential palace (Malacañang) on May 24.

“The best vaccine is the one that is available. In order to overcome brand preference, local government units should not announce the brand of vaccine to be used in vaccination centers,” Philippine Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said on May 20.

Año added that if a person refused to receive a vaccine upon learning of its brand, he or she “will be sent to the back of the line of others waiting to get their shot.”

Abeyasinghe said on Monday that a preference for Western vaccines among Filipinos “should not be interpreted as hesitancy,” though he admitted that the Philippines’ population has been hesitant to receive Chinese coronavirus vaccines in recent months.

“Actually, the issue is that the vaccine supply cannot meet the demand,” Abeyasinghe said. “More people want to get inoculated than there are doses available.”

“What we are seeing now is that people are eagerly ready to receive vaccines and it is in some situations, local governments are unable to keep up with the demand. So it’s not actually an issue of vaccine hesitancy. There are many, in some places, preference for brand A or B of a vaccine [sic],” the W.H.O. representative to the Philippines said. “That should not be interpreted as vaccine hesitancy.”

A survey published by the Philippine polling body Pulse Asia in late March found that 61 percent of Filipinos “would say ‘no’ to getting inoculated with a COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus] vaccine if the shot was available during the polling period [February 22 to March 3].”

In addition to Pfizer’s vaccine, the Philippines has received shipments of Chinese coronavirus vaccine candidates developed by China (Sinovac) and Russia (Sputnik V) for use in its national coronavirus vaccine drive. The Southeast Asian nation has also received doses of the Chinese coronavirus vaccine developed by the British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for use in its campaign.