Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 20) — There is no direct correlation between the death of three medical frontliners in Central Visayas and their COVID-19 vaccination, the Health department regional office said on Wednesday.
“As we reviewed the data, we see no causality, no direct link to the vaccine on the death of these three individuals,” regional office spokesperson Dr. Mary Jean Loreche said during a media briefing.
The three fatalities in March and April were the subject of a probe by a committee of experts reviewing reported cases of serious adverse events from vaccination.
She said the hospital worker from Talisay City who received the Sinovac vaccine died of respiratory distress; the patient was asthmatic but “no consultation, no treatment and no follow-up was made.”
The case in Cebu City died “two to three days” after taking the AstraZeneca vaccine. Health authorities said he had hypertension and suffered cardiac arrest.
The Bohol health worker who completed two doses of Sinovac died of a “heart attack secondary to hypertension.” The frontliner, whom Loreche described as young, reportedly suffered chest pains and an “erratic blood pressure” before his death.
“But he didn’t go to the hospital for a check-up,” she said. “He just went on and had himself vaccinated. He drank liquor after getting his second dose, and after that, he started not feeling well, and his blood pressure shot up.”
Loreche said there are two ways to determine if vaccination led to a death — “one is to conduct autopsy, and the other is to study circumstantial evidence based on history and what transpired before, during and after vaccination, and upon death.”
According to Loreche, all three had pre-existing illnesses but did not report their condition before and after inoculation.
