As part of new vaccine strategy, purchase of Sinovac to be wound down
The Public Health Ministry will slow down the purchase of Sinovac vaccine through the rest of the year in order to focus on vaccines that can be administered to children.
“The ministry will buy only 12 million doses of Sinovac in the rest of this year, which will be used for the Sinovac-AstraZeneca combo vaccination,” Dr Sopon Iamsirithaworn, deputy director-general of the Disease Control Department, said on Friday.
“Once the stock of Sinovac is depleted, an AstraZeneca-Pfizer combo will be used, while the non-combo vaccination would be either two doses of AstraZeneca or two doses of Pfizer.”
Sopon added that the reason for slowing down the purchase of Sinovac is not because the vaccine was less effective, but the ministry would focus on procuring vaccines that are safe for children.
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“We will not buy more of the current Sinovac vaccine unless there is a study proving it can be safely administered to children,” he said. “Furthermore, the ministry is waiting for a new formula of Sinovac vaccine that is currently under development specifically for the new virus variants, as the current vaccine had been developed from the Wuhan virus.”
When asked about a social media post that receiving three jabs of vaccine could cause lymphoma, Sopon said that there was currently no conclusive information to prove the contention. “However, the immune system could be at risk of abnormal cell division if it were overly stimulated. We will need to study further to confirm the long-term effects of getting a third jab,” he said.