People Who Want to Take China-Made COVID-19 Vaccine Can Do So At Private Clinics

Following the recent PM Lee speech, everyone is finally going to get the vaccine! Yay!

You get a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, you get a Moderna vaccine and-

Oh, you want a Sinovac vaccine?

While you won’t be able to get those at community centres, you can now approach private healthcare providers to get them to be administered to you.

People Who Want to Take China-Made COVID-19 Vaccine Can Do So At Private Clinics

Since WHO’s EUL approval of Sinovac, MOH has invited private healthcare institutions licensed under the Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act (PHMCA) to apply to be licensed providers for the Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine under the “special access route” (SAR).

According to TODAYonline, 200,000 doses of the vaccine will be released for free to licensed private healthcare institutions that are successful applicants.

The ministry will select 20 private clinics to provide the China-made vaccine to all Singapore Citizens, Permanent Residents and persons holding Long-Term Visit Passes who wish to take it.

However, one must note that Sinovac and other vaccines on the EUL (excluding Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) are not yet approved by HSA and thus will not be subsidised by the government. Individuals who still wish to take these vaccines will have to pay for their own expenses.

It cannot be covered by the Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance Programme (VIFAP) either.

As for the 34,000 individuals who have been rejected from taking the approved mRNA-based vaccines in Singapore, they will be able to receive the Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccines free of charge. The government will reimburse them the fee.

Though it is a private arrangement, MOH will still draw up guidelines on proper counselling, informed consent and safe management of patients.

They urge patients who wish to take the alternative vaccines to discuss with their doctor in these appointed providers the risks and benefits of using these vaccines and jointly make an informed decision.

More details will be made available in the coming week.

Sinovac and Experts’ Sentiments

TODAYonline also reported that a petition, with regard to making Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine available in our national vaccination programme for free, has been making its rounds.

The petition was created on Friday (4 Jun) and was signed by 12 doctors:

• Dr IW Yang,
• Dr Tony Ng,
• Dr Alan Lui,
• Dr Wong,
• Dr Frances Woon,
• Dr Chan Kai Poh,
• Dr Chai AM,
• Dr Catherine Ng,
• Dr Toh Keng Kiat,
• Dr Charles Ng,
• Dr Anthony Heng and
• Dr Kee Leng Chee.

It has since garnered more than 5,300 signatories.

In addition, you might remember that a doctor had circulated a message on WhatsApp, highlighting those mRNA vaccines are ineffective in tackling the B1617 COVID-19 variant that is now categorised as a “variant of concern“.

Dr Gabriel Oon Chong Jin, a retired oncologist, explained in his message that mutations in the spike protein of the coronavirus has affected its ability to bind cell walls, or antigenicity for all you science people.

The spike protein is the part of the virus that it uses to penetrate human cells so that it can bind with the cells more effectively and cause infection.

However, when the antigenicity changes, vaccines that use mRNA technology can no longer recognise mutant variants.

This is unlike Sinovac, which uses the inactivated virus “with all seven antigens” and can still produce an immune response even when one antigen of the active invading virus is affected by the mutation.

MOH has since responded to Dr Oon’s concerns in a statement last month but did not address how effective mRNA-based vaccines were in tackling COVID-19 variants.

To read about why Sinovac hasn’t been approved by HSA and for more updates on the vaccination programme, click here!

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