MANILA – Angry mothers whose children have been inoculated with the anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia confronted former Health Secretary Janette Garin Monday after the adjournment of the hearing of the House committee on good government on the controversial vaccine.
The mothers, who identified themselves as belonging to the group called United Parents Against Dengvaxia, demanded see Garin to seek assurance that nothing deadly would happen to their children after being administered the vaccine.
Garin, however, said the group did not want a dialogue, but was there just to make a scene.
She said she also believed there was an attempt to delay her from going to the elevator so that some of the group’s members could get near her.
“Hinampas nga ako, kaya dumiretso na ako sa elevator (They hit me. That’s why I headed straight for the elevator),” she said in a telephone interview.
She said a man approached her and introduced himself as someone from “Channel 2” and asked if she could be interviewed.
The man did not have a camera. As she stopped to grant the supposed interview, some of the group’s members rushed her.
Garin said her lawyer and other companions secured her and led her to the elevator on her way out after attending the eight-hour hearing of the committee.
It was during Garin’s term in 2016 when the vaccine manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur was launched. Around 800,000 children from selected provinces received the first dose of Dengvaxia.
In November 207, however, Sanofi said they have findings that the vaccine might increase the risk of severe disease in people who had never been exposed to the virus.
Thomas Triomphe, head of Sanofi-Asia Pacific, maintained that “there’s no evidence directly linking Dengvaxia to any deaths.”
