No child-safe COVID-19 vaccines yet: DepEd told to prepare for prolonged distance learning

By Billy Begas

The Department of Education should brace for prolonged distance learning since the COVID-19 vaccines for Filipino children ages below 16 years old may not be available in the country until the summer of 2022.

Anakalusugan Rep. Michael Defensor said there is a high probability that there will be no extensive face-to-face classes in the school year 2021-2022, considering that vaccine clinical trials abroad on younger children are just getting started.

“Vaccine developers overseas are still trying to assess the safety of their shots on three age groups of children. They are also trying to ascertain the appropriate dosage for each age group,” said Defensor, vice chairperson of the House committee on welfare of children.

President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly said that he will not allow large-scale face-to-face classes in public and private elementary and high schools until a vaccine becomes available.

“While some clinical trials on children aged 12 to 15 years old are underway, trials on those aged 5 to 11 years old are just kicking off. Trials on children under 5 years old will be the last to be carried out,” Defensor pointed out.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has so far approved four vaccines for emergency use to prevent COVID-19.

Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine may be used “in individuals aged 16 years and older.”

The vaccine developed by Sinovac Life Sciences Co. Ltd. and Gamaleya National Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology may be used “in individuals aged 18 years old and older.

The FDA recently suspended the use of AstraZeneca vaccine in Filipinos under 60 years old pending investigation of blood clots coming from overseas.

While children and adolescents tend to be less susceptible to severe COVID-19, World Health Organization (WHO) experts have maintained that they may spread the highly contagious respiratory disease to older and more vulnerable people.

“We would urge schools to improve and expand their delivery of online learning as well as modular and TV/radio-based instruction, with a view to preventing more dropouts and enrolling more students in the transition to the next school year,” Defensor said.

He said DepEd should also identify students who previously dropped out, and encourage them to enroll next school year.

Some 23 million students are enrolled in public and private elementary and high schools nationwide for the school year 2020-2021. This is down 4.7 million, or 17 percent, from the 27.7 million enrolled in 2019-2020.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)