VACC wants Herbosa, Zacate to resign

MEMBERS of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) staged a lightning protest rally on Friday, calling for the resignation of Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director General Samuel Zacate. Led by VACC national coordinator Annie Gabito, the protesters accused Herbosa and Zacate of conspiring to railroad the approval of another experimental dengue vaccine. In front of the Department of Health (DoH) and FDA headquarters, the anti-crime and corruption volunteers carried placards while shouting for the ouster of the two government officials, whom they accused of colluding in approving the Qdenga vaccine from Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. through FDA's Certificate of Product Registration (CPR). "This new dengue vaccine they were introducing was no different from the killer Dengvaxia vaccine; we have received reports that it already claimed four lives during its clinical trial, a big no to this vaccine!" the protesters chanted in Filipino. VACC President Arsenio Evangelista and Gabito told The Manila Times that they need to speak out not for themselves but for the Filipino people as they do not want a "repeat of what Dengvaxia did when hundreds of innocent schoolchildren and some adult individuals died when they were shot with this killer vaccine." "We would further drum up our protest actions in the coming days; we would do it for the Filipino people, and while they (DoH, FDA) are still in the process of approving it, which they are railroading it with the DoH secretary himself declaring in his earlier statement that the new vaccine would be approved within the year," Evangelista said. Erwin Erfe, Public Attorney's Office (PAO) deputy chief, was the first to come out in public and opposed Herbosa's apparent haste in seeking FDA approval of Qdenga. "Another new vaccine very similar to the Dengvaxia vaccine is not the answer against dengue, the DOH secretary and FDA Director General and their officials know that. It's the massive implementation of the campaign to clean the surroundings that's the solution, not another vaccine," said Erfe, who concurrently heads PAO's Forensics Laboratory Division. The PAO official said he was "very much concerned" about Herbosa's apparent move that "he was almost influencing" the FDA into approving the Qdenga by issuing CPR, among others. Based on what he learned about Takeda's vaccine, immunity against dengue after vaccination is not guaranteed. "It's still possible to have dengue again even after vaccination; its protection wanes and, worse, severe dengue remains possible," warned Erfe, who personally led the autopsy of 169 bodies of mostly schoolchildren all shot with Dengvaxia and whose cause of death bore the same patterns of severe internal bleeding in the brain and lungs and multiple organ enlargement. According to a Tekada disclosure, "a protective immune response with Qdenga may not be elicited in all who got the shots against all serotypes of dengue virus and may decline over time." Also, "it is currently unknown whether a lack of protection could result in an increased severity of dengue, and it is recommended to continue personal protection measures against mosquito bites after vaccination." The same Takeda disclosure indicates that "individuals should seek medical care if they develop dengue symptoms or dengue warning signs." Qdenga is very similar to Dengvaxia, and it should be enough signal for the concerned health authorities not to rush for its FDA approval, Erfe said. Herbosa had said that the FDA would likely approve the licensing of Takeda's dengue vaccine. Also, the DoH chief preferred physician-based immunization, adding there was no need for a nationwide dengue vaccination program.