Senator Imee Marcos has warned against a looming “global syringe shortage” threatening to derail the Duterte administration’s national vaccination plan to check the deadly Covid contagion.
Marcos prodded the government to “get ahead of a global syringe shortage, as purchases and donations of Covid-19 vaccines for the country increase by millions in coming months.”
In a news statement, the senator pointed out that the purchase of 40 million doses from Pfizer is “good news but will there be enough low dead space [LDS] syringes which are now in short supply in the United States itself? Let’s hope our own supply does not stop our vaccination program in its tracks.”
Marcos added that more than three-fourths of syringes produced by the largest manufacturer in the Philippines is exported to North America. “We need to secure our domestic supply through imports,” she said. “The expense involved has challenged the DOH [Department of Health] since the beginning of the year.”
The senator explained that the use of LDS syringes can “increase the 40 million Pfizer doses to about 48 million,” noting that “the special syringes can minimize the accumulation of vaccine in the space between the syringe plunger and the top of the needle, thus are able to extract a sixth dose from a vial marked for five.”
She recalled that syringes were “mainly a niche product for specific diseases before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, “noting that ” LDS syringes came into high demand as vaccine production grew to catch up with the rising cases of infection.”
Marcos pointed out that syringe manufacturers are still in the process of ramping up production, recalling warnings that “a shortage will stall the race toward herd immunity as the Covid-19 virus mutates, creates more dreaded variants, and causes new waves of infection.”
“Ideally, advance orders for low dead space syringes, a sustained momentum in ramping up vaccination and a more aggressive information campaign to minimize vaccine hesitancy will allow us to achieve herd immunity this year,” she added.