18/9 News from the Philippines: Vietnamese ASF Vaccines Rolled Out & 7/41 (17%) of Injected Pigs Have Died! Floodwater Fun to be Penalized. School Vaccination Catchup Programs Rolling Out in October.

Messy politics continue: VP Duterte claims budget investigation is politically motivated. Alice Guo detained, Quiboloy arrested, Harry Roque fugitive refusing to submit documents and be questioned.

African Swine Fever Hog Vaccination Trial with Live Attenuated Vietnam-Made Vaccine has been Underway Since 2nd September 2024, 17% of the 41 Vaccinated Pigs Have Died, 44% have Developed an Antibody Response

A trial of ASF vaccination started on 2nd September in Batangas. Today’s news report states The majority of hog vaccinated against ASF remain in good health, and nearly half are developing antibodies. A little later it states that 7/41 of the pigs have died. A different article stated that the deaths were from pulmonary disease and not ASF.

17% of the vaccinated pigs died within just over 2 weeks from injection! What is the typical die rate of that age of pigs in an unvaccinated healthy population? Certainly not 17%! It is well known that vaccination for one illness, can at least temporarily, affect the body’s ability to handle and recover from other illnesses.

Will farmers accept a vaccine that might kill nearly 1/5 of their animals within just a few weeks, and with unknown longer-term outcomes?

Antibodies are not the same as immunity; they just show that the animals reacted to the vaccine injected. How do those antibodies translate to protection from ASF? Is there any impact on meat quality and suitability for human consumption?

Hog farmers participating in the trial have been assured that they will be compensated if their pigs die as a result of vaccination. Who judges that? Is a pulmonary death within 2-weeks post vaccination considered related, or not?

Not everyone is happy with the ongoing ASF vaccination program. Former DA Secretary Montemayor called for the suspension of the program stating that the vaccines, which are manufactured using gene therapy technology, have not passed through the required biosafety approvals.

Other observers also raise concerns with the unproven live vaccine. The Philippines pork supply is at stake. In a country where malnutrition is a big problem, affordable protein (meat) is critical for population wellbeing.

The current ASF vaccine being used in the Philippines is the AVAC product from Vietnam, and it is only approved for a limited government-controlled rollout.

While ASF is very serious and can be fatal in pigs, additional losses being reported are due to the Government practice of culling even healthy herds within a certain radius of any detected ASF case rather than the quarantining of animals and allowing the survivors to achieve natural immunity, which would really be helpful for the prevention of future spread.

Would a sow surviving a natural ASF infection pass immunity to her offspring? This should be critical questions rather than just waiting for and relying on unproven and potentially risky vaccines. Cebu Governor Gwen ordered a stop to ASF-related pig culling in 2023? Cebu did not observe mass deaths in ASF-affected pigs in 2023. Have the Cebu outcomes been thoroughly studied? Could a change in policy be warranted?

Fines for Fun in Flood Waters

Metro Manila has put into place a ban on people wading, swimming and playing in flood waters for fun. Exclusions are those who take on the waters to try to save personal property or to escape from waters. Fines will apply for offenders. Seriously, this strikes me as bureaucracy overkill! Wouldn’t education be sufficient? Most people know very well to avoid filthy floodwaters if they possibly can!

Every Filipino Deserves a Shot at Lifelong Protection - New Round of School Vaccination Program to Launch on 7th October 2024

In a press-briefing on 17th September 2024, Herbosa discussed the Government’s latest pediatric and adult vaccination drives with the catchy marketing phrase Every Filipino Deserves a Shot at Lifelong Protection¹.

Starting on 7th October 2024 DOH is rolling out a school-based measles, rubella, tetanus and diphtheria vaccines for children in grades 1 to 7 to find and update the country’s zero dose children. Grade 7 girls will also be offered HPV vaccines. Thereafter, vaccines will be offered every Friday to school children.

President Marcos is in full support of the nation’s national vaccination program, which has a newly approved increased annual budget of PHP7.9 billion (a 40% / PHP2.3 billion increase from 2021 to 2025).

The Philippines National Vaccination Program is based on 3 laws:

• Republic Act 10152, Mandatory Infants and Child Health Immunization Act of 2011, provides for free mandatory basic immunization for infants and children up to 5 years of age covering 10 vaccine-preventable diseases; Tuberculosis, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Polio, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Hepatitis-B (within 24-hours of birth and not later than 7 days), H. Influenza type B (HIB), and any others the Secretary of Health may determine.

• Republic Act 11148, Kalusugan at Nutrisyon ng Mag-nanay Act (maternal health & nutrition act) covers maternal and early childhood nutrition (first 1000 days) and health, the encouragement of breastfeeding. It also includes maternal pre-natal vaccination for tetanus and diphtheria, and other vaccines as appropriate (Section 8.a.3), neonatal vaccines (Section 8.d.4), early childhood vaccines (Section 8.f.5), and adolescent female vaccines (Section 9.b).

• Republic Act 9994, the Expanded Senior Citizen Act, which grants benefits and privileges to senior citizens (persons aged 60 and above). It includes provision of community-based health and rehabilitation programs for senior citizens (Section 2(4)). This act includes 20% discount and VAT exemption on influenza and pneumococcal vaccines (Section 4(1), and free provision of these for indigent senior citizens (Section 4(f)).

Following and linked is a press briefing with DOH Health Sec Herbosa on the National Immunization Program and Catchup Plans. It is mostly in Tagalog. I have summarized a few key points below.

The Philippines National Infant vaccine schedule consists of Tuberculosis and Hep B at Birth, pentavalent (DPT, HebB, Hib) at 6, 10, and 14 weeks of age, and MMR at 9 and 12 months of age. Although the WHO accepts administration of MMR as early as 6 months of age, the giving of MMR at 9 months is early by international standards; with countries such as Australia and US delaying first dose 12 - 15 months, and some European countries delaying until 18 months².

Herbosa indicated that mothers will be contacted, and infants will be reached for vaccination in their first year of life by a tie up between the vaccination and the national feeding programs.

The school vaccination program (Bakuna Eskwela) launches on 7th October in public schools but is open to all children from private and public schools. DOH want to make reporting of vaccination status of students mandatory. Parents are required to provide their consent for their children’s vaccination. If they refuse, health workers will be informed and will visit the parents to try to convince them to give their consent. However, ultimately, he allowed the choice to vaccinate their child is still that of the parent!

Local governments are highly motivated to encourage uptake; they need to meet vaccination targets to get their DILG seal of good governance. Door to door delivery activities³ may be used in achieving this.

About 71% of children in the Philippines are fully immunized with the 6 antigens covered by the National Immunization Plan. The government wants to increase this to 95% coverage.

Herbosa stated that he considers that Universal Health Care Coverage has already been achieved for indigent (poor and without income) patients, but that the bigger challenge is access to healthcare for working people who cannot access free care (free care is assessed based on income), many of whom also cannot afford ongoing costs of medical care to treat acute and chronic conditions. Indeed 1 serious illness can take a family from independent and thriving to heavy debt. Even wealthy families are challenged and may be brought low, by hospital and medical bills.

Dengue Cases Rising in 2024

At the end of the press conference, Herbosa was asked about the current 68% increase in dengue cases since 2023, and Dengue vaccines. He replied that Dengue vaccines are only to be used after a first infection and in this case a vaccine should be available via a physician and not the national program. There is currently no approved dengue vaccine available in the Philippines. A Japanese Dengue vaccine manufacturer has applied for licensing with their product under review.

Dengue cases are higher in some areas than others, with Eastern Visayas seeing a 4.16x increase compared to the same period in 2023. Currently the best way to protect from dengue is to wear long sleeves and pants, use mosquito nets and insect repellent, as well as ensuring that sitting water where mosquitoes may breed is emptied.

Messy Politics - Duterte, Go, Quiboloy and Roque. PBBM Sick with “Cough and Cold”, Masked, but Still Working!

VP Duterte Claims Investigations into her Office and Dep Ed Spending are Politically motivated to hurt her chances in the 2028 elections.

Duterte tried to halt the House Probe into her fund use, but was denied.

Failure of DepEd under Duterte to spend allocated funds, to deliver laptops, to meet feeding program objectives, to build classrooms, to fill 56,000 vacant teaching and 1000s of admin positions have all been criticized in recent weeks.

Alice Guo, confirmed to be Chinese, was returned to the Philippines after having been arrested in Indonesia. The telenovela continues to dominate headlines.

She has just been rapped with human trafficking charges and investigation into her case, how she escaped and who helped her, and senate hearings are ongoing.

Former Duterte presidential spokesperson Harry Roque has refused to comply with orders to submit key documents and attend congressional hearings relating to his relationship with POGOs.

An arrest warrant has been issued and a police hunt triggered.

Embattled Televangelist and Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) Founder Quiboloy, wanted for extradition to the US over child abuse and human trafficking charges, has been taken into custody after finally giving himself up.

The media is setting out every juicy detail they can.

PBBM is still working despite having a common cold; wearing a mask as he continues duties. There is no mention of whether or not this is Covid-19; which he has had 3x as of end of 2023, despite being fully vaccinated. Hopefully he doesn’t spread the love, whatever it is!

I can only wonder what is not being reported that should be, as media focuses on the current ongoing political circus and selected high profile figures and fugitives.

There is still no update yet on if and when the excess deaths hearing will resume. I will update as soon as there is any movement.

1. Vaccines don’t provide life-long protection; that is why boosters are said to be needed. Vaccines can skew immune response towards vaccine strain infections only, effectively blocking any possibility of the life-long protection that can be expected from natural infection and recovery without vaccine interference.

2. Earlier dosing of MMR is associated with higher rates of adverse reactions. MMR is associated with triggering severe gut dysfunction and autism in some children, although this link is still officially denied by mainstream medicine.

3. Friends who have experienced these activities tell me that this involves a team of barangay health officials going door-to-door to actively convince parents and find unvaccinated children. They are very persistent with their demands, and it takes a very resolute parent to resist their coercive “charms”.