Duterte to form 3-man panel of experts to probe Dengvaxia mess

FILE: A three-man panel of experts will be formed by President Rodrigo Duterte that will study whether the world’s first dengue vaccine, Dengvaxia, indeed caused deaths, Malacañang announced on Tuesday, May 8. (RICHARD MADELO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)

A three-man panel of experts will be formed by President Rodrigo Duterte that will study whether the world’s first dengue vaccine, Dengvaxia, indeed caused deaths, Malacañang announced on Tuesday, May 8.

According to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr., the President, after much discussion, said that “he will be bound by the findings of these 3 experts on the issue of whether or not Dengvaxia actually caused deaths.”

The Palace official said it was the “conflicting testimonies” from experts of the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) and Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), which conducted autopsies on the bodies of children allegedly died from Dengvaxia, prompted Duterte to “seek further advice from disinterested parties.”

Experts from UP-PGH found out in February that three out of 14 Dengvaxia-vaccinated children had died because of dengue, while two of these deaths could have resulted from “vaccine failure.”

However, PAO’s findings, presented before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee in the same month, showed a link between the deaths of 22 children they autopsied and the dengue vaccine.

“The problem of the President is, although there is a finding of a PAO expert and there is the PGH panel of experts’ finding, as a lawyer and former prosecutor, he knows that expert witnesses can cancel out each other’s testimonies,” Roque explained in a press conference.

“Papakinggan po niya ang report at opinyon ng mga ekspertong ito para makausad na tayo sa isyung Dengvaxia. Sa ngayon po nagaantay pa ng mas malinaw na scientific finding ang ating Presidente kaya nga po bubuoin niya itong three-man panel na experts para malaman talaga kung ano ang dapat gawin sa Dengvaxia (He will listen to the report and opinion of these experts so that we can move forward on Dengvaxia issue. As of now, the President is currently waiting for a clear scientific finding that is why he will create this three-man panel of experts to determine what to do with Dengvaxia),” he added.

The dengue vaccination program launched in April 2016 by former Health Secretary Janette Garin aims to provide free vaccines to public school students in places with high incidences of Dengue.

However, this program was called off last year after Dengvaxia maker, Sanofi Pasteur, admitted that its vaccine could lead to severe dengue if administered to a person who had not been infected with the virus.

More than 830,000 public school students in Metro Manila, Central Luzon, and Calabarzon had been vaccinated under the government’s immunization program, according to Department of Health (DOH).