THE PHILIPPINE STAR
THE PHILIPPINE STAR
THUR'DAY I OCTOBER T,2019 fi
Garin offers
to resign ovel
Dengvaxia
By JESS DIAZ
i Former health secretary and now
Iloito Rep. lanette Garin yesterday of-
,fered to iesign from her post over the
Densvaxia controversy.
"fhe challenge for nie is to resign i{
ind.eed Dengvaxia causes deaths... I wel-
Some and accept that. l've been saying
Jhat severai tinies, that dengue vaccine
does not cause deaths," Gadn said.
i Garin *as health secretary dur-
ine the Aquino administration when
a Jroeram to vaccinate one million
'schoo'ichildren
in regions where there
was a high incidence of dengue was '
launched.
' French pharmaceuti cal giant
Sanofi Pasieur produced Dengvaxia,
'the
' Atvaccine used.
the House of Representatives
plenarv session on TuesdaY niBht,
'BuhavDartv-list Rep. Liio Atienza said
Carli utra ,ither former officials of the
Aquino administration should taj<e re-
sp6nsibility tor the dengue vaccination
b'rogram, which he said stoked fear
'amo:ng parents and children.
netilg
- "l3Sif since the misaPPlication
of Denfvaxia, parents all over the
countrythaue iefrained from having
their children vaccinated for fear that
it might do more harm than good,"
Atienza said.
FIe said parents and even health
authorities.were not told that the vac-
cine was effective onlv for child ren
lvho had been infectei with dengue .
whi.le those with no previous infec-
tion are at risk for serious dengue.
; "Who was at fault? Certainly it was
rot the parents and their chi ldren. .lt
lnras the fault of the officials then,"
Atienza said.
' He said the resurgence of Polio
.was largely due to the Prevailing
- lraccination fear among parents and
.chi1d{en.
Garin and other lawmakers have
criticized Public Attorney's Office chief
Persida Acosta for allegedly creating
. hysteria on Dengvaxia. They blamed
tre polio outbreak on "pseudo experts
on vaccines."
Acosta's office linked the death
bf several schoolchildren and even
adults to Dengvaxia. Garin said there
is no scientific evidence to support
'i;uch
claim.
Garin said parents have been
avoiding vaccination alter "non-
experts started claiming rey knew
ev-erything about the vaccine."
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