 fifth installment of the Stop COVID Deaths webinar series brought to you by the University of the Philippines. We are glad that you can join us today as we continue on with our fifth season of our COVID-19 learning journey together. So for today po, no, we will be bearing back to our special topic on COVID-19 vaccines. Iiwan po muna natin ang pansaman talang ating virtual grand rounds although we really appreciate that a lot of you were there and really a familiarization na po on our virtual grand rounds. We will be revisiting that format later on in the next few weeks but for today we will be tackling a very, very important topic po. So even with vaccine supplies steadily arriving in the Philippines and the priority group categories already expanded to include A3 o yung po mga taong may comorbidities, the percentage po ng mga nabakonahan na priority A2 group o yung po ating mga senior citizens ay medyo may kababaan po. So para po sa araw na ito we will try to understand not just the reasons for vaccine hesitancy among the senior citizens but also what are the motivations for our senior citizens to finally take the plunge and take that job into their arms. I'm Dr. Iiwan Francis Sarmiento, Director of the National Telehealth Center, National Institutes of Health, University of the Philippines, Manila. It's always a pleasure to be with all of you during our regular Friday lunch date and as always I look forward to our Fridays because I get to share hosting duties with my partner in crime and my mentor who is a public health expert, extra-ordinaire also our adjunct faculty at the National Telehealth Center and the Special Envoy of the President for Global Health Initiatives, Dr. Susy Pineda Mercado. Dr. Susy? Hi, good afternoon Raymond. Magandang hapong pusein yung lahat. We'd like to welcome everyone to the webinar. It's a Friday. Maganda po yung mga pagusapan natin and we're just so grateful to welcome everyone from Davao, San Boanga, Mindoro, Oriental, Ilocos, Norte and all our Metro Manila hospitals who are here. We also have Deaf Ed and the Philippine High School for the Arts from Laguna, daming tagapagabite. Magandang araw po sa inyong lahat and sama-sama po tayong yan, marami tayong magandapagusapan. I'm sure everyone has a senior in the family whether that's your parents or lolot. Lola, nakikita natin kasi kailangan importantin-importanti po mabakonahan sila dahil sila po yung may pilgrot talaga na magkaroon ng severe and moderate COVID. Pero mamaya, makikinigdayo sa ating resource persons, our experts are going to tell us na mukhang lang nagpapabakuna sa mga seniors, bakit yan nun anong kailangan natin doon. Kailangan tulong-tulong po tayo dahil napakahalagang maprotect na natin ang ating mga seniors at mayintindihan natin po bakit nisi na nagpapabakuna. So stay with us. We have a very exciting afternoon. Over to you Raymond. Just so you know, we have really an expectacular lineup of speakers for today. It's not every day that we get a chance to have them on a webinar such as this topic so we're very, very fortunate po. For those who are still trying to get in, please let us know if you are having any troubles while we are seeing a little over 800 participants in the Zoom webinar po. But for those who are joining us ating Facebook pages ng TV UP, stock COVID deaths, UP system, also those watching us sa live streaming na YouTube channel ng TV UP, Maraming salamat po. Please join us also kasi meron po tayong may very, very monting tweaks sa ating mga pakolo every week. And sana po, kahit po kayo ay wala sa Zoom webinar watching outside of the Zoom webinar, we hope you will be able to still join us in our fun activities and fun polls po. So for today, we will try to, I mean just try to imagine yourself if you could put yourselves in the shoes of yung pinakamahal na senior citizen. Ano po kaya ang mga tumatak po sa kailang mga isipan, ano bakit po sila confused or confused man po sila, ano po ba ang kailang mga agam-agam atong call sa COVID-19 na vaccination. For those who are joining us for the very first time, our speakers will be presenting po essentially theoretical and other important facts with regards to COVID-19 vaccination, followed by a set of reactions po for our steamed set of families and then final discussion in Q&A session before we move on to other questions. As always, especially for special topics, we will be choosing po one to two from our audience to ask their questions live dito po sa ating Zoom webinar. Dr. Susie. Yeah, thank you very much Raymond. So a couple of announcements, hinihingi na nung mga hindi, mga wala sa Zoom, they want the Mentimeter code. So can we kind of flash our Mentimeter link and the passcode. Okay, so we have go to www.menti.com and use the code 1016488, 1016488. Now what we're going to do is, we will have the questions available to be answered on Mentimeter, but if you're on Zoom, you can also just click into the box that appears here on Zoom kasi napansin namin baka yung mga iba. Nahihirapan maganano, pumasok sa Mentimeter. So we will use both of them, okay? So that's so that you can participate and we have some very interesting questions for you. Now, we've got a special guest and we would like to greet the former secretary of health. Okay, it's the birthday of former secretary, health secretary Aykona. And it's the birthday of Aykona. Yes, it's the birthday of Aykona. Thank you sa lahat. Thank you sa lahat. Okay, so mamaya mariling nyo si Sir Aykona. Malalim po mag-isip yan. Kasi sabi namin, kailangan natin embitan, embitan si secretary Aykona. Napakalalim niyang mag-isip yan ng mga bagay-bagay, para ba natin masawal bitong mga seniors na hindi magpapabakuna. So we will see more of secretary Aykona, but happy, happy birthday to you. Okay, Reymond, over to you. Thank you, Dr. Susie. Magikmaligay ang karawan din po ulit to secretary Aykona. But before we go into that, just to mention po, Henry E. Terry, na dalawa po ang ating bumuksan for today, no? So for those who are in the Zoom webinar, we hope you'll be able to join us dun sa ating Zoom poll, but for those who are outside of the Zoom webinar joining us in YouTube or Facebook or Pongsaanman po, please join us by the Mentimeter www.menti.com. Ang code po at 10-16-48-8 at nandun na po siya sa ating chat. We hope that that could also be shared with those who are joining us outside of the Zoom webinar. Before we proceed, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the hardworking team behind the stop COVID-19 webinar series. Maraming-maraming salamat po sa Walang Sawa at Walaotila, Walaang Kapaguran po. Nga mga teammates po natin na sa production team for the webinar series. Without you, our webinar series would not be this successful, it would not even be possible. So maraming-maraming salamat po for making sure that this learning series is possible. We'd also like to take this opportunity to show ang ating certificate for this week. There we go. Ako pa lang tayo. This week webinar number 55, help. Ayong magpabakuna nilolo at lolayan po ang ityura ng inyong certificate na matatanggap po. At least if you have spent 50% of the webinar duration with us, you'll be able to receive this along with a copy or copies po of the presentations of the speakers for today. So for those who are asking, we have already sent out the certificates for all 54 previous webinars. So please let us know if you still have any problems. As mentioned po, yung ating kung how you have entered your name in the registration date will be how it will be reflected in your certificate. So maraming salamat po. Dr. Susi. Okay, so just a sec, Anna knows there are lots of greetings for you in the chat box. Have a look in mind. Your friends are greeting you. Okay, so we are going to start today with a opening remarks by someone who is always on the webinar but you won't always see her. She is the director of the stop COVID deaths webinar and is professor emeritus at the University of the Philippines for film. So it is my mistake honor to welcome Dr. Grace or G.G. Javier Alfonso. Direct, welcome. Maraming salamat. Nasano ko, sa harapan ng camera hindi ako used to doing that. ... para yung po sa dramatization natin, tayong mga consist ng lalakin, ang babae kaya yung nag-bibi na-injagap. Tapang angering direct g.g.we are just so fortunate to have her with us and to give us some sense of order otherwise ang gula natin webinar. So direct, kayo ba yung nag-babakuni na? Ako na na. Oh, nag-first shot na. Sabi niya deducted, ako dahulay, ay late. Pero meron tayong explanation that anyway. Okay, go ahead and give us your birthday. Thank you. Magandang araw po sa inyong lahat. Thank you very much for this opportunity to speak to our community. I call our program Stop COVID Deaths as a community. We have bonded together, we've been together agon, tagal na diba? For more than a year, you have shown trust in our program. So we come every Friday doing our share and claiming our space to help minimize fake. news on the COVID-19 pandemic. We've had 300 guests, top experts, our presenters, our discussants, we're representing all the research data, our reactors with their talaga in valuable insights, all presented with passion and resolve in sharing new knowledge. In the way they answer the questions, we feel the truthfulness, the authenticity and the transparency. Kaya nandun po yung trust, yung mga questions and answers, ang mga questions natin, kayo ho, nanggaling sa inyo. Many of our selected topics were inspired by your comments and questions. Ang mga participants natin dito, mga medical practitioners, kayo po yung na sa front lines, policy makers, hospital administrators. Kusama din po natin dito yung mga na-interview natin sa persons on the street, sila po yung nanunohot, kasama nila ang kanilang mga kamagana. We can see from them how their decision making process are highly becoming based on science and facts, but merging with social cultural aspects as well. At this point, kusto ko po yung batihin at magpapasalamat sa ating mga speakers today. Dr. Ted Derbosa isang ngaligin ang ating programa, Special Advisor National Task Force Against COVID-19. At meron din po siyang programa sa TV UP ang tawag natin dito sa programa niya, Health Issues. And na also, we're fortunate, nan dito sa ating si Dr. Shelly, Shelly de la Vega, Director ng Institute on Aging. Ikataklumbso kibin po sa ating yan, Institute on Aging National Institute of Health ng UP Manila. Si Doc Ona, Dr. Enrique Ona Jr. Alam kong kilalan nyo siya, former Secretary of the Department of Health. Si Dr. Lillian de Lasliagas, Shed Commissioner, Public Health Practitioner at may programa rin sa TV UP, Kalusugan ay Karapatan. And thank you very much for being here at Dr. Charlotte Chong, our beloved dean of UP College of Medicine, Haydn. In your closing remarks, naabangan namin ang magiging synthesis mo. Magandang hapus sa inyong lahat. As a communication person, I will give you an idea of the kind of dedication we put in your program. At the start of the week we meet, ating mga hosts, si Dr. Susie, si Dr. Raymond, yan ang siyang core ng conceptualization ng bawat webinar, si Chancellor Menchiet, si Dean Charlotte, si VP Nanny, si AVP Rika, si Dr. Ted, si Dr. Stella, planning po yan for the webinars to come. Si Roma and guests and topics needed to be addressed, then we review the past weeks webinar. We go through all your comments and then we dedicate another day for shoot of persons on the street, capture the beat of the people, how they think and they're making sense of the things happening in our lives. Or we create a dramatization of our ground round cases and then next day do editing, then Friday comes, we open at nine technical rehearsals, then we go broadcast 12 o'clock, 12 noon. So let us not underestimate the capacity of our community in making a difference. We reach almost 1000, 2000, sometimes we go 3000 full capacity, counting the people who are in YouTube, Facebook may additional thousands po yan. So around 6,000 to 14,000 every Friday. At pag-multiply mo yan, sharing the lessons learned dito, you share it with your families, relatives, friends at kasama sa trabao at balita ko po. Marami po mga viewing sessions sa hospital and health centers during lunch break and every Friday. At pag sinamasama mo, di ba? Subahasakod kayo sa mga tanong na mga nagtatanong sa inyo araw-araw, thousands and thousands are networked together by our program. That's, you know, we feel the culture of sharing, the synergy of this regular learning experience happening at the same time watching it on the replay padagdag po ng padagdag yan, exponential growth at all times at all places. Our webinars are accessible 24-7 in TV UP. Ito po ang ating programa ay buhay at buhay mga kwento ng COVID-19 sa ating bansa. Oral history po, texto po ito, data for researchers, gamitin nyo for your e-journal publications, your journal publications, gamitin din course materials sa klase. When you think about it, our community is an agency for change, to bring us to that goal of having that third immunity. There's so much needed. Ket sabay-sabay po natin ayan ang mga senior citizens natin ang magpabakuna na yan. Pag-usapan natin ngayon. Kaya ang titon natin, help, help magpabakuna nilolo at lola. Talagabang ayaw nila magpabakuna o hindi lang nila magawa o walang tumutulong sa kanila o kulang ang information o nakakagulo sa dami ng nababasan nila at namininig nila. At gusto ko sabihin sa lahat ang pagsusuri at pagpabantay sa kalusugan ng ating bayan, yan po ang ating ginagawa sa ating programa. Kaya at maraming-maraming salamat po for being with us every Friday. This program is yours and thank you very much for making it happen. Back to our well-loved host, Dr. Susi and Dr. Raymond. Thank you very much. That's director Gigi Alfonso who really is, what should I say? She works wonders with our program and it's great to have her on-com. Mang Gigi, please stay for the panel. I hope you'll be able to... Yes, I will. Thank you. Great. So para meron tayong magandang, maganda tayong pintuhan mamaya. So Raymond, over to you. I think we're going to do our questions. Okay, yes po. Medyo nagulat lang ako sa message ng direct pero you don't have often to get to hear those things but maraming-maraming salamat po for the compliments and it really is a testament po on all the teamwork and for your leadership po direct maraming salamat. So for those who are in the Zoom webinar, uliting ko lang po, na ikita nyo rin po itong mga same questions na ito sa Mentimeter when you go to www.menti.com and enter 10, 16, 48, 8 as the code. Etno rin po yung mga tanong. Wala po ang pangkakaiba ang mga tanong po na lang dito sa Zoom webinar, dun po sa Mentimeter. We have actually, sa couple of questions here. The first question would be do you have a senior citizen relative who refuses to be vaccinated? Meron po ba kayong kabag-anak na senior citizen na ayong magpabakuna? Medyo neck and neck po sa talagang very, very time di yung ating topic. 57% say yes, 43%, 44% say no. So malaki po ang persyento na mga nagsabing may senior citizen silan nakamag-anak na ay magpabakuna. Number two, sa inyong pang opinion ano po ang mga common reasons, makaraniwang mga dahilan why they do not want to be vaccinated. Bakit ayo po nilang magpabakuna? Ang top choice po ng karamihan, takot po sila sa side effects and complications. So karamihan po ay sumagot po noon. Although for this question, pwede po kayo pumile ng more than one answer po dito. I think ang pinaka-konti po is ito po mobility issues or bedridden and afraid of the needle. Next to afraid of side effects and complications, ang next po ang pinaka-marami, ay they do not trust. Baksin trust po, do di do not trust the experimental vaccine yung po ang napili po nila. Ang kasunod po dito ay they want to watch and wait and also they are afraid of getting COVID at the vaccination site. So meron po pala ang agam-agam na baka makapuha po sila ng COVID sa vaccination site. May maliit lang po ang persyento although very, very important to note na more than 14% ang nagsabing hindi po ito kasi convenyente. Malayo, wala akong transportation sa sakihan, wala akong kasama, et cetera. So nandun po lahap ng inyong mga rason. Okay, so for those who are joining us po at participating dito po sa poll sa Mentimeter. We are also able to see your answers po. Okay, there we go. Although may karamihan po sumagot sa Mentimeter. Hopefully yung pung sumagot po dito po sa poll ay dito sumagot sa Mentimeter dahil ba doble po ang ating mga kasagutan. For question number two, pinakamarami po ganun pa rin po. They are afraid of the side effects and the complications. Maybe our main speaker will be able to talk about that. She is a member of the Intrem National Immunization Technical Advisory Group for COVID-19 vaccines. But before we go to her, may I'll take this opportunity to greet our attendees from the Lima Emergency Health Center in Lima, Bataan, Central Luzon, Bataangas Medical Center in Bataangas City, Calabarson, Visayas State University in Baibay City in Leyte, eastern Visayas. Inhat po kayo lalo po sa panakon ng Baguio. Visayas State University is followed by provincial government of Lanao del Sur in Marawi City in Bangsamor, Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. We also have those from Pilar College of Samuanga City in the Samuanga Peninsula. Internationally, we have our regular from Bangkok, Thailand, from Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, Sibu, Malaysia, North Delhi, India, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Karak, Kuwait, Sicily, Bordinone, Italy, and our regular from Benayagura Falls, Ontario, Canada. So please continue to input your answers as we go into the main event. Dr. Susi, will you do the honors, po? You're on mute, ma'am. Thank you very much, Rima. It's good to see everyone participating in our opinion, po. Well, I don't know, kung may tamat, maling sagot dohan, malalaman natin mamaya. So ngayon po, TVUP po ay gumagawa ng tinatawag natin person on the street. We talk to interview people who are not with us and get their opinion. So I would like to ask TVUP to please play our person on the street video. Actually, I wasn't hesitant because in fact I'm one of those who are campaigning para sa vaccination ng mga senior citizens. So as para sa am concern, napakahalaga po na ang mga senior citizens ay mga bakunahan that doesn't only protect them individually, kung di it protects the entire family. I was hesitant because of my aneurysm. So natatakot ako. They were saying, okay naman, pwede nandeles. I could still be vaccinated. My aneurysm will not in any way kill me. So I asked also my friends, mga doktor sa skwelahan ko, the medical director, okay naman daw, pwede naman daw. Kasi ganyan nung una din, siyempre may doubt, kasi hindi natin alam bagong bakunahan ano ang magiging side effects nyan at saka effective ba siya talaga. Pero ngayon nakikita natin na very minimal naman yung side effects. Simula kasi nung nagkakobid. Nang hina na talaga yung magay ko. Before nakapaksimba, nakadayang nakapit bahay. Pero simula nung nag-lockdown. Nang hina na siya, mag-deteriorate na yung health niya. Then finally, nung dumating na yung bakunah. Eh, first, siguro hesitant ako kasi nga, bed reading na yung mother ko. Andong pa rin yung hesitancy. Pero, willing na ako mag-willing kami magkakapatin magpandakulala nang kasarad niya. And many of our employees na dali ng COVID-19, dalawang doktor ang namatay because of COVID-19 sada sa they were affected by it's hospital. Dahil natapat ko na maraming nakobid, finally said, oh siya kaya nga mag-inject na lang ako. Specifically for senior citizens, we know that it's really very important for seniors to get vaccinated. So yes, there was definitely hesitation. Sphere of side effects of the vaccination primarily. And we had to really, you know, explain to them and educate them on the importance of the vaccination. It's not really vaccine hesitation. Actually, a bigger percentage of my elderly patients are not hesitant to get the vaccine. In fact, they are very familiar with vaccines because they are also the population group wherein we advocate the pneumococcal and the influenza vaccine regularly. So they are used to getting vaccinated. Number one that I've seen so far amongst my patients is registration. So there are some municipalities like Kesson City, Pasig where the registration is online. It requires a device. It requires internet connection. And it requires a little bit of tech savvy in order to be able to register. Kesson City Government actually, there are two ways to sign up for vaccination. There's Barangay Assisted which is scheduled. The Barangay, Kesson City Barangays are given a specific schedule and slots. And there's also Easy Consult which you can do book online. Obviously for some seniors, meron silang challenge yung mga doing it online. So we had to assist them talaga. Some, we actually had to make emails for them or to make the actual account, yung Easy Consult account po and then assist them in bookings just to be able to get them vaccinated for right away. And of course there are those elderlies who don't have the capacity to leave the house. So those are my post stroke patients. Those are my patients with dementia who are very difficult to remove or to take out of the house in order for them to get vaccinated. So problem din yun. Kasi I have patients who are in their 90s or in their 100s. I have patients 100, 200, 400. It's really very difficult and very challenging to get them out of the house. Yung schedule namin was 12 o'clock. So we were there at exactly 12 o'clock. Nang dumating po kami, punong-punong ng tao, ulang problema sa distancing kasi nakahanan ng mga po yung mga one. But sa dami ng mga tao at sa kasainit na yun, doon kami nababad ng husta sa inib. Isipin yung from 12 o'clock na turu kong kami magpakagok lang? Sana pro-active sila takay di sila na mimili ng asikasuhin. For some po who still had some challenges we offered yung drive-through so that they didn't need to go down to their cars. And then also, Kesson City Government offered home vaccination, home visit for those na-bed ridden and then or like, talagang major mobility issues. Merong kami yung isang kagawa na in charge of seniors. Ginagawa nilang madali para sa mga seniors na magpabakuna ako. Hindi ka marunong kumunta doon sa e-consult. Tuturo ang kanila at saka talagang gagabay ang kanila hanggang doon sa vaccinating station, sa vaccination station hanggang doon. Talagang napakalaki po ng tulong ng aming barangay tapos ngayong po, yung Kesson City isa din talaga sa pinaka-organize na LGU at mabilis. It's also the little things like information dissemination. How do people know? How do the senior citizens know? How to register? How for those who have not been vaccinated to submit to vaccination kasi napakalaga ng protection. I don't even advocate on the use of a certain brand kasi as para saang concern lahat ng brands na ito would be helpful kapag ito ay inabail natin. Thank you very much TVUP. Very insightful to hear different views on why the seniors are having difficulty getting vaccinated. And we'll continue this discussion. Right now, I'm very pleased to introduce our first presenter. And he's not new, you know him. He's one of the founders of Stop COVID Deaths. He is a trauma surgeon, a world-class expert in emergency response and in disasters. And we are just, our country is very fortunate that he is special advisor to the national task force against COVID-19. Di na tayo iniiwanan at mabuti naman kasi kailangan natin malabanon ng yayare. We'd like to welcome Dr. Ted Robosa. Ted, welcome to the webinar. Thank you, Susie, and good afternoon to everyone. I'm so happy that a lot of our colleagues in the senior citizen category, including myself, are here to discuss this very important topic. Ted, go ahead with your presentation. Okay, thank you. Let me share my screen. Allow me to give you a brief overview of what's happening on COVID-19 with a specific focus on the vaccine deployment and also our age group, the A2 category or the senior citizen priority group. We've gotten into this complex situation. We in disaster medicine call a complex emergency, something that is a major humanitarian crisis that is often the result of a combination of political instability, conflict and violence, social inequity, and underlying poverty. We usually use examples of war for complex emergency, but now I'm seeing that a pandemic that has caused this great effect on the social and economic sectors of society is indeed an aswell complex emergency. So this is the global picture right now. The size of the red dots on the global map of WHO show the size and numbers of COVID-19 cases there. And if you look at the per capita by population per 1 million, you will see that the country seem to be different. Although the countries that we see always listed are different in terms of total numbers, but if you do that per 1 million population, you will see a change in how we look at things. So it's all a matter of looking at this slide, but it's the national action plan against COVID-19. We're actually on phase 3. Phase 1 was really building up capacity and learning about COVID-19 with the testing molecular laboratories. Phase 2 was actually deploying the PD-ITR strategy to the LGU so that they can implement it well in the cases that happened. And phase 3 was really all about balancing economics and the third cluster, we call the vaccine cluster. This is the latest. Just yesterday, the Department of Health reported again an increase of cases. We were already at the low 5,000 new cases. It's back to 7,217. And for the first time, the other regions, Visayas and Mindanao, outnumber the cases in NCR Plus or the NCR bubble. So we are controlling the situation at Manila, but we have outbreaks happening in Iloilo, Bacolod, Kagayande Oro, Sambuanga, Palawan, General Santos, Surigao. So that is our situation. And in terms of the other table here on the right side, it's really the biosurveillance of what variants are the predominant ones. We continue to have the predominance of the B1.357. I think they changed the nomenclature again. They now changed it to something I forgot. But WHO changed nomenclature again. So this is the South African variant which is the most predominant, followed very closely by the UK variant and P3 which is the Philippine variant found in Region 7. We've had cases of the B1.6.17 which is the Indian variant but among travelers they were quarantined and actually infected anyone in the community. So there's no community transmission. So these are the NCR cases. It's actually decreasing but it plateaued and slowed down. I think the other super spreader events a couple of weeks back are now contributing to the increase or to the plateau or the decline in the slowing down of the cases in NCR. So we need to keep our guards up. This is our Hospital Care Utilization Rate at NCR. At the peak, you will see that we were at 88% of the ICU beds. This was the time when people couldn't get admitted in the ICU beds and were dying in tents outside the ER or worse in the car or in the ambulance. As of May 31, the president announced our classification. Actually what is interesting here is not that the NCR Plus bubble was decreased to from GCQ with heightened restrictions to GCQ with restrictions. So that is just a little terminology. But what is more interesting is that there were 14 areas which was heightened up from GCQ and converted to modified enhanced community quarantine. Therefore a stricter community quarantine in Kagayan, in Payaw, in Benguet, in Fugaw, in Porto Princesa, in Iloilo, in Wanga, in the whole in Wanga Peninsula, in Kagayan, in Oro, in Butuan, in Agusan. The rest of the Philippines are now in modified. So these are just the differences. I will not belabor anymore what are the differences between GCQ and GCQ with restrictions. So over in the last column are all the GCQ with restrictions about the numbers and percentages of what can and can't be done in these different activities. As for our vaccine program, we have a goal and a roadmap that was planned way back in October of last year. And the idea was to save more lives, recover our economy, fully integrate vaccine deployment and the immunization program against COVID-19 with a whole-of-nation or whole-of-society approach. So we are reducing morbidity and mortality that is due to COVID-19. So more interestingly, there are three imperatives now to end this global pandemic from the Philippine perspective. The first is really to strengthen surveillance and sustain mitigation, testing, tracing, and isolating at scale. So we have to do this now in Visayas and Mindanao and Northern Luzon. Border control and biomex of the different variants that are coming up. And sustained public health measures may, I mean, now there's discussion about removing the face mask and leaving just the, ah, removing the face shield and leaving just leaving the face mask. So these arguments will continue, these debates will continue as we go on with vaccination. But the second part is really to aggressively vaccinate. Aggressive is the keyword here. We have supply and redistribution to expand and we create more supply. The problem is demand generation. We need to increase demand generation. There are sectors that are good. Suddenly everybody had a comorbidity when A3 was already being injected. So everyone who looked healthy suddenly had a certificate of associated comorbidity. Then we have to continue our adverse event monitoring. We need to look future in the next year the possibility of a second generation of vaccines or booster doses for those that have already received the complete two doses of the different vaccines. We also have to look and study now targeting by 2022 pediatric or 12 to 12 to 18 years old 12 to 17 years old which are not yet covered in our current one. And another interesting study is the mix and match of vaccines. We are still awaiting the verdict on all those decisions. The private sector has been very helpful and I'm happy to announce that this coming June the AstraZeneca ordered through a tripartite agreement are coming. So is the Moderna ordered by through a tripartite agreement ordered by the Razon group are also arriving in June. So we will be having several supplies aside from the regular Sinovac that's arriving and of course the COVAX AstraZeneca and Pfizer doses that are arriving including some extra doses from the United States who have promised to give us some of their Pfizer doses. Very important really in the vaccination is the vaccination program and central to this is actually communication. We have realized that the campaign will entail a big amount of collaboration and last yesterday you heard the new campaign which is the Bakuna Benefits campaign which is over a thousand restaurants are now giving benefits and discounts 5% discount on purchases if you show your vaccination card. So people with full vaccinations get the 5% and I think some gas stations will give as much as 3 pesos per liter discount for those who can show a vaccination card. So this is the Bakuna Benefits consumer incentive activations and it is really a way to incentivize people. Other countries like the US is implementing a raffle and lottery. Ours has been approved as well the DOH presented it and I think it's the PCSO that will be implementing some kind of lottery for our vaccinees to increase inclusion. So this is the big problem we have a lot of people who said in the poll that they're afraid of the side effects and most of the side effects have come around because of fake news of what's going to happen to your DNA what's going to happen to the vaccines because they're experimental inclusion of microchips a lot of fake news going around and people are sharing and resharing them so that's the big problem when it is reshared they say when you tell a lie and you tell it often and up it sounds like it's the truth. So this is the struggle we fight to counter fake news, disinformation misinformation. The private sector will be injecting with their own vaccination sites and will be increasing our vaccination output or throughput daily to reach our targets as much as 93,000 jobs for the first 30 days are promised by the private sector. They've also used very important sites like the mall. This is in SM Ora in Tagig City and they've used the events place called the Samsung Hall for a very convenient vaccination site and I saw that many of the seniors were very happy with it because it's air conditioned, there's an elevator it's easy to park. We've developed a bus vaccination that will go to the poorer areas of Tagig so it can go barangay by barangay and vaccinate the priority groups. So we have several without 8 million that arrived already as of May and by June 6 another 1 million doses of Sinovac is due to arrive plus many more that are arriving this month. A total of 9 million doses almost 10 million doses are due to arrive June. So this is the distribution of that we've actually received 8,329,050 doses of different types of vaccine. We have 4 brands Sinovac, Sputnik, AstraZeneca and the Pfizer that have arrived. By June we will have 5 brands. We will have Sinovac, Pfizer, Moderna will be added to the list we now have 5 of the 7 that we have committed and we expect to get almost 10 million 9,950,000 doses to arrive in June and that will bring us up to a total of 18 million doses arrived already in the Philippines. In the beginning we were focusing on our NCR plus 6 provinces for the focus because that was where the cases were very high. Now that it is decreasing we have the different regions asking for more like Region 8, Region 7 Samwanga. So these people are asking for more vaccines so that they can fight the outbreaks that are currently happening in their area. So 70% of the population is about of the 83 that's about the target so that's 58 million. This is how we plan to deploy our targets if we reach up to 50% and this has been seen in the other countries if you reach 50% of your population vaccinated you will achieve containment. Containment means you will reduce hospitalization, fatality and deaths and this includes the A1 which is the healthcare workers the A2 which is our senior citizen which is our topic for this afternoon and A3 the persons with morbidities these are our most high risk population and if we want to make a dent in our case fatality rate these people must all be vaccinated by September and if we continue from September onwards to November we can actually have more of the prevention of continued transmission and be able to contain the disease but I think it will take another year maybe in 2022 or even 2023 when we can finally eliminate the disease and hopefully even eradicate it with just very good vaccination but I think these are the vaccination statistics these are the total doses 5 million doses that have been given 3.9 million as the first dose and 1.2 million as the second dose it's very difficult because because of our limited supply we have asked some second doses to be given as first doses because we expect more of the Sinovac to arrive on June 6 so may do erroneous yung someone claiming 1 million second doses are missing in fact the difference also is in the 500,000 AstraZeneca that we vaccinated initially 525600 which were vaccinated in mid-April are due for vaccination with their second dose with Astra this week actually last week and this week that will kick up with another 500 people getting their 500,000 getting their second dose because that is really the duration of the interval 84 days so it's a difference of 21 days the short test which is your Pfizer your Gamalaya and Pfizer and your 28 days your Sinovac and 84 days interval which is your AstraZeneca so you've seen this graph shown on television showing that we've reached the peak average of 150,000 vaccinis per day that's a very good speed or of vaccinating people so we're high up there above Thailand, above Indonesia above Myanmar in terms of vaccinations per day in fact we even reached a high of in late May we reached a high of 1,000 doses per day we have cities like Kesson City and Manila that are vaccinating almost 20,000 vaccinis per day and this is the story of where we are right now for the administered doses on a 7 day accomplishment rate so we're averaging 1.1 million per week in the past 2 weeks already so 1.1 million doses we want to raise that 1.5 million per week and you can see that our senior citizens are A2 we've vaccinated about 90% of our master listed A1 so I guess the ones that are waiting are either because there is a problem or because they're waiting for a vaccine that they like so the health workers are given choice of what they want but the senior citizens we just show the figures of that this was the difference in 2 days you will see the number of doses per day in May 29 we reached up to 198,984 so as long as there are supplies we will be able to deliver so the second week we got 169,709 7 day average of daily vaccinations about 61,000 senior citizens or 12,000 senior second dose so this is May 30 you will see we increased again the number of doses being delivered in fact we have local chief executives complaining that they are already lacking the supplies to vaccinate because the supplies are getting scars at the end of May and we're waiting our deliveries so this are some of the completed computations of how many people really above above 60 years old are in our population so you can see here that in 2019 we had 9 million people above 60 so there are people that died but there are people who become 60 also so I assume it's stable at about 9 or 10 million people are in the senior citizen category and that's about 8.6% of the population and women aged above 60 is about 4.83% so there are more senior citizens who are women and our current average expectancy is 67 so this gives us an idea of how we are deploying the vaccines in the first quarter we just had A1 by the second quarter we added A2 and A3 senior citizens and the people with comorbidity and these are the individuals that have been vaccinated 1.4 million health workers 1.3 million senior citizens and 1.1 million A3 so A2, na kita niyo kanina 9 million almost 10 million so we're at only 1.3% of them that have been vaccinated only 1.2 million have been fully vaccinated so we're doing it fast but we're still a long way to go because we're just starting our journey to vaccinate these people so let's go have a dive into the A2 priority group as of May 30, 6pm you will see that our overall completed first dose is 29% and our overall completed second dose is 10% and this is the overall we are at 17% so medyo mababa yan considering that we have started vaccinating since the first second and now it's going to be the third quarter so for two quarters the A2 priority has been there and yung A1 na kuha natin 90% yung A3 interestingly ang dami nila that certificates for more comorbidity so they outnumber the A2 so why are our seniors not going to our vaccination sites when it's free it's available so ito yung coverage ng A2 the coverage of the vaccinated with the first dose and the second dose so of the A2 vaccinated for the Philippines it's 17% for NCR it's a bit high 29% so if we go to the other regions we have areas like mimaropa that is only 7.2% so mababa yung mga senior citizen natin in the region so we need to solve this problem but if you look at the A3 the A3 started to increase we have vaccinated so much more 1.6 master listed is 1.6 so I guess dumami lahat even all the celebrities now have comorbidities so it's very interesting how people are motivated at certain age group levels while others are not even the A4 which is starting on Monday nagkocomplain sila at by age we started with 40 to 50 years old nagkocomplain yung younger so it's a nice problem to have so if you take note of the vaccinations in A3 for all regions are lacking in vaccine supply there is no slowing of demand from the priority group the vaccination activities are limited due to the lack of supplies to the regions however ncr region 3 region 4a are vaccinating more of priority A3 dito sa ncr and the region 3 and region 4 yung ating ncr plus mas maraming A3 so these are younger individuals nakakalikta natin yung ating senior citizen these are for the four doses the blue one is the cumulative for healthcare workers ganda talaga ng graph natin yung yellow is for the A3 and the red is the A2 so akita mo mas mataas yung pagpick nung A3 na gusto ng magpabakuna these are just some pictures of us it's always very emotional for me when I get to see the vaccines arriving being delivered from the airplane because I count one million doses that's 500,000 Filipinas again going to be saved from COVID-19 of course COVAX brought the Pfizer and hopefully we can get more of that popular brand and this is Sputnik V you can see the sign of Sputnik V so as a summary of what's happening there are good news and bad news and of course as a very optimistic person I will say the good news we have breached the 5 million mark on vaccine administration the Philippines has now achieved the highest rate and tempo or speed on vaccine administration in the asian region tayo po ang pinakamabilis yung nagawa natin in 3 months since December paginagawa ng Singapore in a shorter period of time than what Singapore was able to do and hopefully with a steady supply of all the different vaccines to our approach which I think is working the portfolio approach Thailand only ordered from two companies so did Malaysia so nang kaka problem silang ngayon sa supply but we ordered from seven companies and we now have four brands with an additional fifth one then we're due to get 80 million doses from the US State Department basta daw pirmahan natin yung BFA cancel cancel I think that's part of the interest in the Philippines as an ally a long time ally nila so they want to share their excess 80 million doses that they hoarded last year and none of the other countries could get then of course more LGUs are scaling up their capabilities some LGUs are now having house to house yung problem kanina they send out their people with a laptop or a phone and then they register the senior citizen in the home they help them run through the registration there are those that provide free transport and there are those planning to do house to house for the bedridden senior citizens the business sector has already committed and seen the one I presented the bakuna benefits to increase our output and increase our vaccine trust and the Philippines is rated number one in the global COVID-19 on international budget partnerships result on the global scorecard for accountability that I like to thank you all we remember that all must be vaccinated including our senior citizens we are not safe until everyone is safe and wala nga iwan wala nga iwanan thank you very much back to you Susie and Raymond okay thank you very much that's Dr. Tedder Bossa who is the special advisor of the National Task Force against COVID-19 and faculty of the University of the Philippines Philippine General Hospital Raymond over to you thank you for giving us a glimpse of the statistics we move on to one of the pillars in the geriatric community for a geriatric medicine community she is the director of the Institute of Aging the National Institutes of Health and she is the director of the geriatric medicine community so sorry okay Raymond I am not yet a senior citizen but I love working with and for senior citizens so allow me please to share my screen okay na okay po we can see it ma'am okay all right thank you very much I'm Shelly DeLaVega director of the Institute of Aging of the NIH UP Manila and I'm going to talk about hindi pa nababakunahan ang senior citizens back it so these are my disclosures I'm a member of the interim night tag for COVID vaccination and I was president of the Philippine College of Geriatric Medicine first of all we are going to just discuss very briefly because this is my third guesting and I think you can look at previous episodes for the more detailed discussion on why there is a benefit to vaccination of senior citizens so why do senior citizens need the vaccine so risk and benefit and I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the concept of healthy aging and the challenges to COVID vaccination we had several FORAQ key informant interviews and round table discussions and I will share the results with you and of course if you recall one of our geriatricians who spoke earlier said marunong na magpabakuna ang mga senior citizens kasi sanay na sila magpaflu and yung muna vaccine pero meron din balaki dun sa maliit na programa na yun yung COVID vaccination ang seniors now and then of course we will look at the current situation of the COVID vaccine rollout thank you Dr. Ted Herbosa for talking about it in greater detail and then I am going to propose solutions based on our RTD discussions and FORA so let's start now so this is where our senior citizens are this was the 2015 census of population and if you recall Dr. Ted Herbosa flashed a more recent statistic saying that more than 8% of our population is now aged 60 years and older and more than 8 million are already senior citizens as we define it to be 60 years and older so these are where they are sabi nga ni Dr. Ted Herbosa ni Maropa ang nagpabakuna kasi siguro yun lang isa sa pinakakonting senior citizens sa buong Pilipina so let's look at the distribution where are they, these are the top 5 regions with the highest number of senior citizens so the highest number are in region 4A Calabarzon followed by region 3 NCR and then number 4 is region 6 now for the Mindanao area Dabao has the most number of senior citizens so senior citizens are at risk of severe COVID we know that internationally we know that the risk increases from age 50 hanggang 1.3% lang pero once they are seniors nagiging 3% so there's a tripling of the number of deaths and for those aged 80 plus years up to 20% have died of COVID among our seniors in the Philippines the death per 10,000 population also increases as age increases below age 50 the death rate for 10,000 is only 4.32 but once they reach the age of 65 and older it's already 81.15 so ang laki-laki ng number affected and deaths especially among senior citizens the older they are the higher the risk of severe COVID and death now why are our senior citizens at risk it's because they have what we call comorbidity so in one of our studies called fit for frail the comorbidities among Filipino older persons that we identify that are related to COVID risks are hypertension, diabetes, obesity tobacco smoking so madamiyan and many are men by the way and we know that for COVID deaths there are many men who die and aside from that many are living alone and cannot be reached so maybe this is one of the factors that we need to consider when we are looking for the senior citizen that has to be vaccinated and of course the dependency is about 15.6% probably also the more frail yung mahirap makapunta sa vaccination center so let's remember these numbers we now know that there is also long COVID long COVID is when the symptoms persist beyond maybe one month from hospitalization these symptoms persist to beyond six months sometimes more than a year na tayo may COVID so more than a year and the symptoms can be psychological and physical so psychological symptoms are of course grief and bereavement especially if someone else in the family dies from COVID post traumatic stress disorder a lot of those who suffer from COVID have anxiety attacks may isip nila yung when they were in the hospital when they couldn't breathe or when they really had to be brought to the ICU insomnia or poor sleep poor memory or brain fog I see a lot of my patients now having these symptoms brain fog especially and some measure of depression physical long COVID symptoms include persistent shortness of breath fatigue joint pains and poor mobility poor appetite, ni makakain kahit matagal ng gumaling sa COVID headache or pains anywhere so let's remember this these long COVID symptoms are very important to older people sometimes when you are already very old you no longer think of yourself as having to live long or you know that you may not live long so the remaining years that you have you want to spend happily with great well-being and with people that you care most about and this is what COVID takes away from those number of years that you have remaining in your life so are senior citizens too frail or too weak for COVID vaccination ito yung lagi natin naring nigg masyado ng maraming sakit hindi ko na pababakunahan si nanae or one of our speakers earlier said meron ako anyo resem baka magka-complication ako sa COVID in fact yes frailty is a condition among the oldest especially the oldest old and when you are frail you have reduced strength and physiological malfunctioning and that may predispose you to dependency vulnerability and death especially from COVID but when we did a study as I said only 15% of our participants were frail and most were not frail so the Filipino citizens that we looked at were mostly robust or pre-frail ano ba yung pre-frail if we look at robust, pre-frail as they continue this is something like you have to think of it as something that is reversible so a frail person as long as they get proper management as long as they have a good supportive system can become pre-frail a pre-frail can become robust so very important to know that a supportive system can reverse all of the frailties that we know about so here comes senior citizen vaccination we know that senior citizen vaccination reduces the risk of death and complications including long COVID and those of you who continue to work I know that there are senior citizens age 70 who continue to work no? you may continue to work once you are vaccinated it also protects those around you your family members at your church and it enables you to attain healthy aging and what is healthy aging this is very important to senior citizens like I said because it allows you now if you are vaccinated it allows you to function in areas of your life that are most meaningful to you especially spending time with family and making up for lost time with maybe people who you have not been in contact with for a long time even working that can be meaningful and it helps you attain well-being because you don't want to have those long COVID symptoms okay so what is healthy aging just briefly healthy aging is that process of developing and maintaining functional ability that enables your well-being as you age and if you have a supportive environment if you have a health system then you will function best so this is how we look at it look at that red line here functioning decreases with age with biological aging this is intrinsic to us nagkakasakit po tayo meron tayong mga napagdaanan sa buhay nagkakovid pa that red arrow there will really reduce your functioning drastically once you have COVID so this is just one example but some people if you look at the blue line are able to maintain their function well enough even as they age and this is where vaccination comes in because COVID-19 vaccination is a health system intervention that supports an older person and that allows him or her to function better than others who did not receive the vaccine so that is what the vaccine does to functional ability all right so therefore senior citizens are the best candidates for COVID vaccination especially and even if they have hypertension, diabetes, heart disease kidney on dialysis, chronic lung disease aneurysm dementia etc na the vaccines are generally safe and only the most effective vaccines and brands for senior citizens will be released and recommended to you all of our vaccines have undergone first preclinical and clinical testing zero, one, two, three manufacturers have already determined the best dose they have tested these on healthy adults they have tested these on older adults and now as you have heard there are reports in actual communities in various countries that say that a specific brand is now benefiting all of their vaccinated participants, I mean recipients in that country so we now know in the real world that the vaccines are performing very well even better than what we know of these three clinical trials and by the way most senior citizens do not need to get clearance from their MDs as long as you have your senior citizen card or as long as the barangay can vouch that you are a senior citizen konding-kondi lang po ang ilangan ng medical clearance okay but there are challenges of course as Dr. Ted Herbosa had said there are, why are the numbers still low? Let me talk to you now about the challenges to COVID vaccination okay like as mentioned earlier we have been giving out the free flu and pneumonia vaccine for indigent senior citizens and that may be a reflection of how COVID vaccine is now being accepted by senior citizens now in that same study pit for frail we realize that there is some difference between urban and rural government private versus private hospitals and comparing government and private hospitals in urban and rural areas more older persons were immunized with flu and pneumonia vaccines from government hospitals so sanay na sanay na po ang government hospitals natin magbakuna ng senior citizens and rightfully so now we know also that they're doing a good job vaccinating our seniors with COVID with regards to whether vaccines were deployed by hospitals or RHUs mas marami po more vaccines were deployed by our RHUs and this is probably a programmatic thing they really gave the vaccines to RHUs but again few were vaccinated because it really is a supply issue because the law says free flu and pneumonia vaccine only for the indigent senior citizens when you look at who were vaccinated more 54.1% were not vaccinated and I think this is just really an operational and a supply issue the same way that the COVID vaccine is facing a supply issue at the moment but hopefully more vaccines will come and among those who received the vaccine more females aged 70 to 79 were vaccinated na now a similar study done by Dr. Cruz of UP Population Institute DRDF looked at vaccine awareness and inoculations of flu and pneumonia among senior citizens and if you look here many are not aware of the flu and pneumonia vaccination and if only they are already used to vaccination we probably would have an easier time convincing them about the COVID vaccine so let's not forget about these important vaccinations okay looking now again at COVID COVID vaccination rates this is similar it really came from the slides that Dr. Ted Herbosa had presented so more than a million had their first dose and roughly a quarter of a million completed their second dose but note that some A1, some of our health workers were senior citizens and were vaccinated under A1 so there may be a little bit of under counting there and many of our A2 senior citizens also received AstraZeneca and their second dose will be June this July so hopefully by July we will see an increase in numbers okay but there are other obstacles number one lack of trust in vaccine safety and efficacy is the lack of news that needs to be contested conspiracy theories ayaw ng anak napakaimportante pala ng anak kasi pag sinabi ng anak nanay wang kamag pabakuna ba susunod sinanay kasi paano naman nga siya pupunta sa vaccination center kahit gusto niya fear of needles sorry but men have a fear of the vaccine needle maybe that's why even for the fluendomonyo vaccine accepted the vaccine and unfortunately doctors those doctors who are now in this webinar some of you do not recommend vaccination because you yourselves think madami nang sakit si Lola si Lolo that's agism that's a poor understanding of the geriatric patient population because they are the ones who will benefit the most because they have these comorbidities let's not subject our senior citizens to agism that they're very fragile that they're forgetful that they're helpless please let's fight agism as well now again dr. Nikamel Sanchez a social worker who is an adjunct of the institute on aging did a study just a few months ago looked at 70 to 100 senior citizens per luzon in Mindanao and did a thematic analysis many of the senior citizens are really worried about getting COVID there are those who are undecided and do not want a vaccine because as I mentioned they're scared of side effects and efficacy because they also think the reason why they don't want is because they are sick they have illnesses and children again were identified because if the child or the daughter son does not agree the senior citizen won't be able to access the vaccine so we did a focus group discussion with stakeholders with the DOH a few days ago we had the federation of senior citizens association of the Philippines representatives from LGUs representatives from the Philippine College of Geriatric Medicine Philippine Society of Geriatrics so we had a mix of government and civil society organizations participate and these were the results again as mentioned earlier many are unable to register because they have no internet na yung mga nasa malayong lugar wala rin silang load o pambayad ng load and they don't have the cell phone they just don't have the device they are not techie kailangan pa daw i upload hindi na sila marunong and the Oscar list Office of Senior Citizen Affairs does not always have a complete list and this really has to be updated especially those migrants those who came from other provinces na dito dahil nagvakasyon lang na lockdown or because they had forgotten to register those are not listed and cannot be found again, access to vaccine center is a major issue it's too far there's no transportation it's not disability friendly akit ka pa ng handa na mataas and it is in a high COVID area si Mam Salve at siya ng isa natin a participant sa isang community ang nagsabi niya mayroong isang community na inawai pa daw siya sabi nung senior citizen kagawad kasi yung vaccine center na pinapupunta sa kanila ay nasa COVID area makit nga naman nasa COVID area yung vaccine center na yun so we really have to have a good choice of where they should be going and the closest the vaccination center is to their homes, the better okay, what strategies let's now go to strategies so registration seniors need to be trained on how to use the easy console but again kagawad Rona has said there is now barangay assisted paper listing so the barangay really has to be very good unfortunately there are very good barangay kagawads senior citizen kagawads the entire community even their home owners associations work together really to find those senior citizens who may fall through the cracks and I've seen that happen in one of the districts here nearby when they surveyed the senior citizen back in February the hesitancy rate was 30% but as seniors started to be registered and started to get their vaccines recently the hesitancy rate is now down to only 10% and only 5% will have said that never will they get vaccinated so the list of hesitant seniors is really dropping when they realize that their friends, their neighbors have gotten the vaccine so that is a good effect of having a good community program really we have to work together and again we need to tell our Oscars please update your senior citizen list it is in the law that they have to update their list quarterly in a province na pinuntahan namin 10 years na po ang kanyang Oscar list hindi pa nilala na update yun naman ang nakakapagtakapo alright next so other strategies supply it really is a supply issue the vaccines are only slowly coming in na hirapan ng ibang senior citizens natin kasi when they started to call them 10 vaccines were available so they will call that oh pumunta na ang seniors dito pagdating nila doon only 20 vaccines were available to them so that's very difficult for senior citizens buti na lang ang mga seniors natin ay machachaga din at bumalik sila nung meron na ulit na bakuna so I am really hoping that the more supply comes in the better the vaccination coverage mobilization like I said a while ago is a whole society thing LGUs homeowners associations even religious groups are now vaccinating getting their senior citizens into churches or places of worship because they know them they can find them and they can bring them in CSOs and NGOs very important federations of senior citizens COPAP COSEL at yan and celebrity endorsers kailangan ba maybe kailangan who knows that might work and one thing I know is that we need to train our doctors because there are a few doctors out there and even other health workers to say wag nambakunaan yan si Lola masyado ng matanda bedridden na yan pero as doctor Sandy said meron tayong mga 100 year olds at mga bedridden na binakunahan and are doing well community workers on geriatric health and very important stop and identify fake news because that is very confusing okay strategies again distribution workplace remember that there are senior citizens who are still working again barangay hall doorstep church home including by the way group homes or nursing homes sama sama kasisiladon drive through that is being done now maybe even pharmacies can start giving vaccines onsite no as they are doing for example in the United States okay we need to manage competing activities we are now rolling out the flu and pneumonia vaccine some seniors had to delay their COVID vaccination kasi wala pa daw 14 days since they received the flu vaccine now the CDC and the WHO is now saying you don't need to wait anymore you can give the flu pneumonia and COVID vaccine simultaneously but locally our vaccine experts have to approve that so we're waiting for the final approval of our vaccine experts about simultaneous vaccination and of course supplements alternative methods that are receiving a lot of hype and marketing they're very very aggressive on marketing these have to be addressed and of course competing other age groups dumadami na ang nagbabakuna ng A3 nanjana ang A4 susunod na sila baka naman maubusan ang senior citizens wagsana po ha alright so public health recommendations health is a right vaccination is a right it's in the law for senior citizens we just need to expand the RA9994 to include pre-vaccination for all senior citizens not just in digest so sa akin ang magandang tagline is bakuna ko karapatan ko ang mabakunahan so we need to increase access to geriatric care the house of representatives committee on health unanimously approved a bill supporting the national center for geriatric health research institute and regional geriatric centers sana po ay maipasa ito para lahat po nang mga regions ay may geriatric ward pati na rin ang mga clinic mga LGUs para matrain natin lahat ng geriatric health ang mga workforce natin so that we can do a lot more research to improve health care to our seniors again going to public health recommendations we also have that DOH national health and wellness program for senior citizens sana po matuloy ito because vaccination has to be within the context of wellness within the context of healthy aging hindi lang po siya para hindi kayong mamatay para hindi mapunong ICU ang bakunat puno ninyo laban sa COVID ay para sa inyong healthy aging and well-being we also need based on our studies in fit for fail we need a pandemic and disaster preparedness plan that includes senior citizens that is one of the things that we found to be deficient and more importantly let's start producing our own vaccines here in the Philippines that I think will complete the picture now incentives are they necessary? I think these will help if you have a vaccination card if a senior citizen has a vaccination card na po ang well-being ang well-being and quality of life napakaganda na kasi pwede na magsimbah magpunta sa mall, kumain sa restaurant kasama ng mga kamag-anak at kaibigan maari ng bumyahe and yung mga vouchers na binangget vouchers for vitamins sana we have vouchers for vitamins DOH that was a request based on our FGD maybe even family meals na or raffle yung iba na and who do we give an award to? I think we need to award well-performing barang guys well-performing kagawads we need to give recognition to families that have been completely vaccinated and of course organizations that have helped in the roll out of vaccines thank you very much yung lang po you can contact us through our Facebook, YouTube and our Institute on Aging Website thank you very much okay, thank you very much that's Shelly Dalavega who is the Director of the Institute of Aging of the National Institutes of Health Raymond did you have did you want to make a comment pa or we go to the next time? no, let's go to the next family list pa director Shelly thank you so much pa thank you yes ma'am it's very important it's very important that there's an emphasis not just the COVID-19 vaccines but all the vaccines po nakailangan din po na konin because that sometimes gets lost in the messaging bakalang COVID-19 vaccines thank you Raymond thank you Susie okay thanks our next speaker will give a brief reaction to our presentations and we'll impart some wisdom on how do we do this how do we get our seniors vaccinated and it's my honor to introduce somebody you know he is what should I say the foremost transplant surgeon of the Philippines he built the National Kidney Transplant Institute to the World Class Institute that it is and he was Secretary of Health and of course somebody we highly regard and respect and we're just so happy that on his birthday he's here with us so I'd like to welcome Dr. Enrique Oana welcome to the sir I welcome to the webinar asana si sir I sir asana kayo ready na? yes sir sir how are you happy birthday po first of all thank you and again thanks a lot for inviting me to participate in this very comprehensive and impressive presentation on the problems of the aging population well in terms of my commentary I'd like to mention and excuse ok jelly first of all because this is the first time that I heard her speak and at the same time being more aware of what the Institute of Aging has been doing as a matter of fact I think during our term we wanted a more effort given to the development of geriatric centers because dumadami na ng ating senior cities na at figure that what I hear is something like 8% and that indeed is going to increase and if you look at our field health wala masyadong support as a matter of fact very little in terms of identifying a specific support for our aging population but again napaka comprehensive ng presentation ng two speakers natin both si doctora and of course the comprehensive presentation also of 10 showing us that actually hindi tayo po le lat no as a matter of fact I think it must be impressed to the public that we are among the top performers now in terms of the number of 4% of the population that may be but in terms of the numbers specific numbers maganda na ating numbers of the population that is being vaccinated but going back to the specific subject of this morning which is the problems that the aging population is facing and questions that are often raised or there is a observation ang pulang ating percent of those that are being vaccinated and I think Shelly already explained quite well the reasons why they have some difficulties and of course the main difficulty really of this population I think is accessibility or yung convenience and the reason for that is very obvious if you read the commentaries of at least 2 or 3 columnist on their experience for example yung isa diabetic siya and napakatagal yung they were made to wait at since he had taken his anti-diabetic yung insulina nagugotob na siya all of these small factors made it difficult for the seniors at the same time I think it's also important to categorize ating senior citizen I think the problems of those who are 60 years old would be quite different compared to the problems of the septogenarians or lalong lalong yung octogenarians and even those in their 90s and of course the associated comorbidities that these people have so I think very important that the community must have at least of the not only of the seniors but the comorbidities that these seniors do have so that they can really be specifically assisted parang they can have it in terms of physical assistance so that they can be brought to the to the vaccination centers I really don't have to add much any more to the presentation of doctora de vega because nga dana ng yung analysis of the problems of the seniors of the aging population and I think that this webinar that we are having now should really be made available to the public when I say to the public meaning to the press, to television and the radio because karamehan talaga ng objection naman na mga seniors are essentially in terms of accessibility and assistance based on their incapacity to of lack of knowledge on using the IT or the internet and second of course is their capacity to go to the center so I'd like also to comment to take this opportunity to comment then for giving us a very comprehensive at current information on the status of our vaccination program and the expectation that the public can have for the next four to eight months now of course napaganda na I think ang ating program ngayon and it's only the availability of the vaccines but it's nice to hear that we're going to receive several millions of vaccine coming the next two to three months and we Ted assisting of course general Galvez after all I know that Ted has been behind maybe not known to most people Dr. Rev Bosa is actually the I think the man behind the one helping the most our general in being able to achieve the extent of the vaccination program we I think sinasabi ko parin not that much gulo compared to what we would what we hear from other countries so again maybe what I would add is that this epidemic shows the importance of paying even more attention to our senior citizens and even for the public to understand that the senior citizens has they have a lot to still contribute to the advancement of our country and I know that this kind of webinar actually what we need to make the public understand that meron pang magagawa ang ating senior citizens thank you for this opportunity and I really appreciate the opportunity to listen to this and participate in this webinar thank you thank you very much that's former Health Secretary Dr. Aiko Natsang as I said malalim talgang mag-asip kailangan i-categorize natin yung mga seniors kasi hindi sila pare-pareho such a sharp insight into that Sir, I'd like to hope you'll stay so that we can discuss further in the panel I think I really would like to re-emphasize that iba ang problema ng population in their 60s and you compare it with the population of those who are in their maybe 75 and older and again to go back to the need to understand and give more attention in public health with regard to our geriatric population not only in terms of healthcare but health support coverage as a matter of fact we are trying to suggest that there be an accessory so-called premium or coverage that defines really that will be defined essentially for the geriatric population but maybe identified it for those who are maybe 75 and above Thank you Thank you very much Sir, I know and I think let's pick up on some of those points later that this is not just about the vaccination of seniors but it's their wraparound services, it's about their total care. Okay, over to you Raymond for our next reactor. Thank you Secretary Ona, maligayang ka-arawan po ulit Sir we hope to be able to gain more insights during the panel Sir, maraming salamat po and then for our final reaction for today's final speaker we have, well she will be talking about po from a public health perspective and really the coverage po with regards to senior citizens how it can be improved maybe personal experience na rin po none other than one of the commissioners from the commission on higher education Dr. Lillian de Lasliagas com Lillie Magandang hapon sa ating lahat ako ay natutua at ako ay kulit sa pagkat ang maari ko pan-sabihin ay nasabi na ng iba kaya ay don't need really to repeat question, ay don't need to repeat some of the things said my opinion is the opinion poll provided some insights already these are basically indigenous beliefs based on indigenous knowledge. The presenters provided greater understanding on various aspects of COVID and COVID vaccines as a matter of fact Dr. Ted gave a comprehensive narrative on the local and global situation provided empirical data and analytics success story and government's response giving a certain level of hope Dr. Shelley equally provided a comprehensive narrative she gave us data analytics on the basic epidemiology of COVID issues, strategies and public health aspects as well it is a very comprehensive narrative in particular a public health perspective so I really do not know if I am still do I still need to say something after Dr. Shelley what can I still say Dr. Shelley provided the basic elements of epidemiology who, what, why, when, where and how obstacles to vaccination and public health strategies I must say that the virus is a novel virus its local epidemiology has not been fully established we know very well in the public health that once the infectious agent has not been fully defined it is very difficult to find the COVID virus viral biology viral characteristic viral drift mutation viral strains and pathogenesis have not been fully defined I'm happy to hear from Dr. Ona as well saying that it is important to have system in place to have data based profiling of senior citizens this is very important ma'am you've lost your video maybe you just need to there you go okay thank you pa okay ma'am malik na pa did you hear me well where do I yes ma'am but we lost your video for a minute let's continue ma'am I am very glad Dr. Ona mentioned about database profiling of senior citizens we start with the database to determine the entry and exit points of our intervention programs it is also worthwhile knowing from the point of view of a fellow senior citizen that this pandemic emphasizes the value of senior citizens in the Philippines we will say after hearing the presenters and the reaction I want to believe that I can still say something that can contribute to the paradigm of vaccine problems and issues let me supply some concepts, principles, constructs and model and some insights the episode of start COVID deaths help ayaw magpabakuna nilola at nilolo or vaccine hesitancy I like to improve this by saying ayaw ko ba hindi ko ayaw gusto ko din kaya lang sigurado ka ba na hindi ako mamamatay this is where I am coming from the vaccine is available but there are uncertainties beliefs about the vaccine there's so many brands so many people talking about the brands with different branding different claims different labels and therefore it is not really very easy to understand from the point of view of a senior citizen the health belief model I fully subscribe to as a person who has been in the practice of public health focusing on the control of vector born diseases in particular dengian malaria we have subscribed and had advocated on a health belief model it is a tool that health scientists use to try and predict health behaviors this model is based on the theory that a person's willingness to change their health behaviors is principally due to their health perceptions example people will not change unless they believe that they are at risk seniors who do not think that they will get COVID are less likely to get COVID yes vulnerable population who are at risk based on science are not convinced that they are at risk why? scientist bishop and glance posits six constructs influencing health attitude and behavior as applied to COVID may I now enumerate this low susceptibility they do not think they catch the virus they rather stay at home because they are not allowed to go outside how come this time they are compelled to get vaccination and go to the vaccination sites no seriousness severity of the disease anyhow media written newspaper videos have been showing more recoveries than this so why stay and why should I go to the vaccine sites personal reasons and preferences as my number 3 construct cultural beliefs Filipinos would say I am already old di balina kaming matatanda sabatan na lang yung para sa amin ito ay isang ugali ng Filipino culturally mapagparay ang ugali ito ang nakatita ko at nalalamang ko na koong dahilan ang mga senior citizens natin na kunsaan nakatila sa mga areas na hindi naman masasabing komportable in buhay na is nilang ibigay sa kanilang masmahal sa buhay na masbata perceived cause after vaccination fear of side effects as has been mentioned earlier by Dr. Shelly and that's ang sabi, mahal ang mamatay ito too na mamatay mahal ang mamatay perceived discomfort in vaccination centers these are really challenging situation profounded by one of the person interviewed napakahaba ng linya napakainit at wala naman sa sakyan para magtunta sa mainit na lugar perceived past experiences I believe one of the reasons while people are hesitant not even the senior citizens let's recall the vaccine then back to the vaccine standard we still have that kind of problems as we know as a person working in the field we are experiencing refusal in the community because of this vaccine for them to stand out the speakers gave us the best information and situations to fully empirically see the pictures surrounding the episode I am a senior citizen I still feel I am not saying so I have for questions or five questions can I still get the virus after the vaccine shots yes because it does not prevent infection and infecting others I told myself there should be a very good explanation by an explainer on what viral COVID infection is versus COVID disease are the vaccines safe and effective yes according to the claims of the pharmaceutical companies very limited science studies we know it takes years in order to come up with a fully clinical study of any candidate vaccine yes formal vaccine and new flu vaccines are experiences of the senior citizens but I must say this genetic agents are not noble in nature they have been studied fully well are there risks of complications when given the vaccine is going out and mixing with people safe such I was compelled by my barangay I must stay at home to be safer it contradicts therefore going to the vaccine side which is which I am confused how many people have acquired COVID after being fully vaccinated of the 11% vaccinated as shown by data how many died how many really are in good condition from the perspective of public health through health communication and promotion recipients there is a need to build understanding and communicating a need to communicate for behavioral impact a long term health communication plan with a health crisis communication strategies pre-COVID during and after COVID we need a health crisis communication expert utilize the integration communication strategy utilize data for risk factor analysis message by the messengers to the desired public must really be studied very well in particular when we are addressing messages for senior citizens this must be behavioral the aim is to determine measurable changes in behavior not just knowledge not just attitude but action engagement as the public health we can engage senior citizen group as the influencer choose who are these other influencers they must be trusted they must be respected in the community perhaps a good spokesperson would be someone who is a senior citizen 70 years old has been vaccinated look, I am okay explain reasons for seniors compliance based on empirical data the caregivers and family members must be given appropriate information updated information not from the non experts not from the opinion makers DOH should be very good source of information and definitely should be the institution responsible to protect and promote health of the Filipino people WHO as well and other authorized explainers build the competence of the BHW as messengers my question now am I safe after my first shot I got my first shot after last March 16 yes, I will not die I am protected presumably based on labels and claims and also my doctor's prescription no I can still get COVID as the vaccine is not a preventive vaccine or a propylactic vaccine I still need to observe public health protective measures and prevention measures the virus is a novel virus we really need to know a lot of things and because of that there are things that are very uncertain to us it is important that the many messengers of information the many speakers about COVID and COVID vaccine be regulated as people are confused whom to believe we call this impodemia ang impodemia is ang bagay na nakakaroon na hindi magandang effecto sa tao senior citizen hirap ng makinig hirap ng makatanda at hirap ng sabihin baka ako mamatay hindi ko ma-sisegurado yan sa pag-at hindi ako na sisegurado na ako ay mamatay so these are my insights we need a very good information education strategies and we really need to build on strengthening our communication strategies we need to be focused we need to be behaviorally customized and improving knowledge by the way will not be translated to improving behavior on that I like to say these are my insights these are concepts and this is my understanding about public health related to COVID and vaccination maraming salamat ko at magandang ako thank you very much that is Commissioner Lillian de Lillagas of the commission on higher education so Raymond we are going to call back everyone into a short panel in the interest of time we will have a very short discussion but we will have Director Grace Alfonso let's have Dr. Ted Robosa Shelley and Secretary Ike and Mam Lillian back into the plenary but before we start Raymond did you want to share the final feedback from the opinion poll okay can we have that flash on the screen so as for our opinion poll this is also the same set of questions that we have for the mentee meter the first question shows that 56% those who responded they have at least one senior citizen relative na ayopong magkabakuna sa pangalawang question in your opinion what are the common reasons why they don't want to be vaccinated and there are multiple answers but 84% that's the top most selected they are afraid of side effects and complications followed by 38% distrust on the experimental vaccine and that is followed by a watch and wait approach and also they are afraid of getting COVID at the vaccination site and the rest are equally distributed in terms of mobility issues convenience and if they are afraid of the need so marami salamat po for our more than 730 respondents questions and we still are very grateful that we have more than 1200 attendees in the zoom webinar okay thank you very much Raymond and thank you very much everyone for participating that I'm just going to throw one question to our panel in the interest of time because we're close to the top of the R so we just like really a quick feedback from you. I mean we've heard a lot of things that we need to do there's like big systemic things there are sort of some structural issues that need to be addressed but I think what as Ted has been talking about this the objective at this point in time is to get the seniors vaccinated asap right away oramismo ngayon na nao na okay so I just want to ask everyone what is just name one thing maybe that families need to do to help get the seniors vaccinated ano kailangan gawin ng ng pamilya kasi gusto ko yung sinabi ni sir Ike talaga it's stuck in my head na iba-iba no different ages iba-iba talaga yung pang nga ilangan dila so ngayon ang ka-uwiyan din ito sa bahay and families and also our audience are really health workers, nurses, doctors frontliners what is one thing that we can do to increase these numbers and we need to do that right away I mean this is not a long term thing right now we need to get more seniors vaccinated so we'll start with Ranjiji what do you think thank you anakin ng influential do sa atin mga public service announcements aside from senior citizens yung involvement na family yung mga anak to facilitate for them to bring them to the vaccination center kasi ano yan eh sila yung araw-araw nakasama so we need to do that so that we go to that fastest time possible we reach the next normal so bring everybody to the vaccination center I like that direct so parang our communications is not really directed at the seniors but not the children or the ones to bring them who will enable them Ted what do you think I agree with that but the other thing that you should actually look at is the social cultural dimension of how we take care of our elderly in other countries where there are really segmented programs really for the elderly we tend to say the family takes care of their seniors their Lolo and their Lola and that's how we do it and that's why I think the best approach of the government is not really to segment that sector but making sure that the family really supports the vaccination of our senior citizens kasi hindi sila nasa nursing home so UK wants to vaccinate them you just go to the nursing home and vaccinate everybody in the nursing home here they're at home they're at home and some of them have mobility issues so I think the real key is working it from a family centered social cultural dimension of targeting them so it has to be family so other than the younger it's really the family that will convince their own seniors and next to that layer will be the LGU or the barangay because the barangay knows who are the seniors in a particular barangay so it's got to be that whole of family whole of community engagement to really push the seniors into the vaccination centers back to you Susie thank you Ted yes matagal ko natong sinasabi we need to vaccinate families tuto yan, lahat nang sinabi ninyo ang gree ako dyan of course, even that we still lack the supply hopefully when the supply comes we do advocate to families and very effective ka laga ang vaccination if the barangay works with families that's what I've seen so far successful vaccination programs depend on very good barangays and a close-knit barangay family system that's what works okay, thanks Shelly Dr. Ike Dr. Anna sir, you're on mute because Secretary Anna, you're on mute sir okay go ahead sir kagatap ko yung kameran nyo yan, okay sir okay, sir ang gree yung sinabingan di Dr. Lilya Dila-Kiyangas in the Department of Health we did some social sciences social anthropologists and social psychologists kasi ka ibang-iba ang dating and problems in understanding the elderly and at the same time be able to segment kasi ba-iba I'm sure of problems now of course when you talk of physical disability it's very important na ating public health system I know kung siydo yung mga sinyo citizen and their barangay and lalong lalong nang kung siydo yung physical disability because they would be very it would be very difficult for them to go on their own lalong lalong na for the lower income bracket at the same time also is the yung technology in helping them be able to to register and I know very well of Sahagara Luluhan they had to really look for special assistance and even their barangay kung that offer it so hindi sila ma-register hindi sila ma-register through wala damang silang email and a few of them have even a cell phone so yun ng isang difficulty of our of our real elderly na nasa hindi in the octogenarian age and older now in terms of in terms of yung sinabi ninyo I totally agree with that na the family and of course the community is the most important aspect ng information to convince them but I think the doctors you know I had several numerous awan during the past during the past month and of course being being asked by our elderly friends yung anilang fear of being or not necessarily fear but information the need for information that it is indeed safe for an elderly or a senior citizen to receive a vaccine actually ko lang yung info information an ABB guy because na for some reason ko lang siguro on television or maybe on radio or even on other sources where in bombarded pa sila ng hindi nila ba lama nga wether it is a fake news or a wrong news at all or new wrong information and that is what is necessary and that is where the department of health I think has to come in bringing in so called experts for those that understands the problem of the age of a population thank you very much sir ma'am lillian go ahead na I will return to my convey communication behavioral impact there is so much message many messages in the television so I focus message for the senior citizens we really need to have a very focus message for the senior citizen what should the message be it's not to increase knowledge but to increase compliance because they have trust on the vaccine and they have trust on the information the presentation of Dr. Shelly is a very good scientific basis for the Filipinos to trust let's Dr. Shelly talk let Dr. Shelly come up with a message or good information education campaign behavioral messaging the one preparing this message example for dengue somebody said I am alive and happy so how will you contradict that what would be the message for the senior citizen that is my focus Dr. Suzy ok, thank you very much Raymond we have one or two questions from the audience so let's take our questions and then we'll have to close because we are a little over the time ok, thank you the first question will be coming in from our audience member Maria Jane Villanueva if you could open your video and ask your question Good afternoon go ahead for organizing this kind of webinars which is very helpful to all the the population that are supposed to be vaccinated but my question is more on here in our LGU I find it very hard to to get the elderly because at present I am in charge of the elderly people here in our wellness center and I have tried the online registration several times and until now they have not given us a schedule and I have contacting them I ask the help desk of Kesson City and referred me to the LGU where we belong and I have contacted the person in charge and until now they have not given us the schedule I have talked to the person in charge of the schedule and she said that they are going to call me back and I have been waiting for more than a month and nothing happened so I don't know how can this be addressed because our elderly here are willing to be vaccinated and yet no vaccination is available for us so I don't know so maybe we are going to throw that question to Shelly and then maybe to Ted Shelly go ahead that really is programmatic I think maybe Ted would be more in a better position to answer that I think you can now write your counselor at maybe even write the mayor because talagang nakasalalay rollout sa barangay I tried already contacting somebody who is near with mayor Joy Balmonte I already have contacted a person close to her but what she told me is that we just have to wait because vaccines are outnumbered by those who are willing to be vaccinated so I don't know Ted, what do you think? I see the figures and every morning we meet in the National Vaccine Operations Center and I see the progress of two cities that are very fast in vaccination it actually belies the problem that she's stating that the R2 of the fastest they average about 20 20,000 vaccinations per day now her problem is the fact that Quezon City is a huge city it's actually the one with the largest population so in terms of scale talagang makikita mo na compared to let's say Pateros nakuha na nila yung mga senior cities sa mila in one go in a week itong Quezon City is taking 10 months to actually schedule the other thing that they had a problem with was their vaccine administration software which had problems so my key is to address your specific problem I'd give the same advice na kailang yu gyugin mo yung LGU because the administration of the vaccine is not the national government it is the local government so the local governments have capacity and capability may mabilis, may magaling, may equitable may nasisingitan sa pila so you'd actually have to fight for your right because we must have equitable distribution of the vaccine following the priority listing so dapat yan prioritize talaga nila so for your confidence what I can do is I can look at the specifics of Quezon City in terms of their senior citizens because makandumadami yung A3 nila na akakalimutan nila yung senior sa child vaccine barangay mo pa yung barangay at saka yung barangay mo para malaman ko and then okulitin natin yung City Health Officer alam ko ang ginawa ng Quezon City nag-barangay na barangay Holy Spirit na barangay Holy Spirit o kaya bigay natin ko din natin yung baka next week, mayroon tayong answer sa kanya we'll do that bakin tayong ang pangalan so she said it's barangay Holy Spirit but I usually don't give inputs but I will and what they do in other places is while the national government is not in charge the national government could have some kind of an oversight function so for example like our our personal question um dapat mayroon pwedein puntahan tawagan para sabihin dito sana yung wala and at the national level there should be a way of tracking saan ba itong mga hindi nangyayari? kasi while it is the responsibility of the local government there is some kind of an oversight responsibility for the national this is just my opinion as I've seen it in other places so input ko lang yun I don't know if that's something na parang mayroon pwedein puntahan you see doctor Ona wants to say something go ahead sir sir ang tingin ko nga dyan until we really have a national ID wherein you can easily identify right away I don't know kung ating barangay of course they claim they have pero nasa ang listahat na kadila mga senior citizens if you really look at it until we really have upgraded our IT capacity together with a national identification and have categorization at this information at your fingertips mas usob natin yung ganyang problema right now really is a matter of not necessarily well it's a problem of size of course numbers but at the same time mayroon din ang advantage sana dito ng ating so called national national DOH being able to give the direction but tamatama rin naman ang implementation really has to be at the barangay level of course mayroon maliit ng barangay mayroon naman malaking barangay in just the same manner with regards to cities but again the solution to this is really an upgrading of our IT capacity and I think it's coming but that's why you have this kind of difficulties pero secretary o na ang senior citizen natin may ID lahat may actually have ID because it is a 20% discount so young kason city may listahan sila yan because I'm from kason city and I know I got my ID in an office so that office has computers so they have a list of all the senior citizens and their address and their contact number their barangay bakit hindi sila pwede ng anong tao dito sila na mismo ang humabul dito sa mga senior sabi ng nasyutag hundahan dito sa senior tapang dito lang ang dinawaan nila pero ang information kasi bibigay mo individually sa mantala kung mayroon kang IT system isa kwan lang yan may bibigay mo kaga so in short it still is interoperability of those IT system that will really facilitate being able to give all those information until we achieve that which other countries especially Taiwan and maybe Singapore or to a certain extent Thailand has already malapit-lapit na rin tayo doon but hulapa and I think this are really what I call birth pains that hopefully will be solved well I hope ula ng imang pandemic na darating pa kaya he wanted to see ah yes yes sir Kamini Susi we conducted the fit for frail and one of our major policy briefs is a robust health information system including those issues that you mentioned interoperability for example so yes a robust health information system would make it easier ya I agree I mean the two LGUs that I know very well tagig and batahan they have mapped to the level of the household who sinong may aso you know who needs a wheelchair you know level ng information na kaya ang gawin ng LG but these are relatively smaller LGUs compared to Kesson City but I think what sir Aik is saying is really a national you know like an electronic medical record system for the whole country but that's for another topic and I think this has been a very exciting discussion Raymond do we have one more question or we're going into closing statements now one more question po this time coming in from sir Nathaniel Young go ahead good afternoon we can hear you sir thank you I just wanted to say hi to Dr. On I hope you're doing well thank you my question actually was if most senior citizens do not need to have medical clearance as has been said during this program why does the fallacy of needing such clearance still appear to be pushed by those in the trenches who are conducting the vaccination program are there clear cut guidelines that can be disseminated to the general public through mainstream and social media platforms of the relevant government agencies such as the DOH that can be seen by those planning to have a vaccine and shown directly to those who are in the vaccination centers yeah that's for Shelly Shelly say you know there are guidelines and the DOH has been sending out these guidelines to our implementers in the field unfortunately there are people in the field who are really fearful of side effects et cetera in our experience being a member of NITAG I have worked closely with our barangay and our vaccine implementers and I have shared the guidelines as Chas for example you can have your vaccine even if your blood pressure is 160 over 80 our senior citizens know that because I have shared that as a right to know so kanya kanya din talaga so it really depends on how that information is disseminated to your senior citizens in a way that is understood easily because the DOH of course gives out guidelines for doctors so yes perhaps a similar simpler version can be shared to the public okay thank you very much Shelly alright we are running out of time and now we are going to go to your final statements I'm going to ask the final but while we're doing that Raymond you might want to flash on the screen can I raise a question for Dr. Ted bago ko o mag-board meeting yes go ahead yes I'd like to ask Dr. Ted do we have a national COVID communication plan yes we do we have three groups that actually work in our COMS plan there is the rest bakuna program led by Beverly Hall and then there's the PCOO that also has the laging handa and the daily COMS of secretary Harry Roque and lastly there's the private sector that you're hearing now they call the T3 which is the bakuna benefits they showed they have the T3 bakuna town hall meetings as well and they all work together they actually they're a cluster the communications cluster we call them strategic communications cluster work together and they identify this so yeah thank you Dr. Ted if I ask you what should be the message for senior citizen just to appreciate the intent of this yeah I think the message should be what should be the message because the message is at one general yeah the senior citizens need to be I think the hesitancy is really about side effects we saw that even in the poll here so what do we need to tell the senior citizen just to end up my question so the bakuns are safe and effective for them but because there is distrust how do we address the distrust well you fight the fake news in the midst that's the problem our problem is social media social media has a lot of disinformation and unreliable information and we need more talking heads that are reliable more people like Shelly talking out in the public Shelly's talk of television Edsel Salvanya talk more on television or the other people that are believable masakritari o na co-begin leaders who can give out statements so that you can convince the unconvince actually it's the sector the middle sector about 30% who are undecided they are the ones that are convinced Thank you Dr. Ted for this very focused answers because these are my anxieties about the current community Kiribali da pala ako nimam because may marami tayong may nasabi at hindi naman ibe-evaluate anong nangyariya sa crown Thank you Dr. Ted that's very affirmative Okay thank you very much everyone we will ask everyone to speak for less than a minute and just give your final remark so we're going to start with ma'am Lilian your parting words are audience less than one minute ang sinabi ni Dr. Herbosa ay nakakagalak at naki na iskong matwita na ito ay patapag Thank you very much Sir Ike Well siguro ang gusto kung sabihin lang and I hope lahat na nakikinig should tell all the seniors that they know to assure them that this is indeed a program of government that they should wholeheartedly support at wag matakot because this is well studied and the advantages definitely is so much compared compared to the so called fear that they have so bang pabakuda lahat na mga seniors Thank you very much Sir Ike Shelly Yes, vaccination is recommended for seniors wag matakot all vaccines are safe and effective especially in reducing hospitalizations and death but more importantly ang inyong kalusugan ay inyong karapatan at ang pagbabakuna ay inyong karapatan So makuna po ay karapatan ng lahat lalung-lalung ng senior citizen Salamat po Thank you very much Ted Well sa mga senior citizen dito na hindi pa napapabakunahan payo ko sa inyong mga pabakuna na kayo kumakama kayo sa bahay which is many of the people here na may senior sa bahay kumbinsihin nyo sila at ihatid nyo sila at samahan nyo sila sa vaccination center para magpabakuna Maraming salamat Thank you very much Salamat Salamat sa inyong lahat Direct GG Okay ang one liner ko lahat tayo we are a community encouraging more people to be responsible and take ownership in the conduct of public health in our everyday lives So maraming salamat Thank you very much We'd like to call on the Dean of the College of Medicine of the University of the Philippines Dean Charlotte Chong to give also her short summary of today's webinar Go ahead Charlotte We are about to conclude webinar number 55 and of course the theme is health ayong magpabakuna nilolo at lola Everybody will agree that we actually covered a lot of ground in the past two hours There was great hosting as always thanks to Dr. Raymond Sarmiento and the President's Special Envoy for Global Health Dr. Susy Mercado Pineda Professor Emeritus and our TV UP Executive Director Dr. Grace Alfonso gave the opening remarks to consider this webinar as a community and claiming that our space claiming this to be our space with more than 300 top experts already being able to give information to counter the fake news pinatawag na infodemic and fake news at the need for authenticity and the transparent discussions that will show how passionate we are as frontliners as healthcare workers to provide science-based solutions given the social-cultural dimensions of Philippine society She actually gave us an overview of how this webinar actually comes to life and the efforts given to this webinar the synergy that has been exponential hundreds of thousands already being able to reach not only the country but even worldwide Sabi po nindirect GG we are all agents of change seniors specially have to be protected in this pandemic Pagsusuri ng bayan ay kailangan The first presenter was world-class trauma surgeon and disaster expert Dr. Ted Verbosa who's also a special advisor to the IATF and vaccine Sarkarita Dalves who gave us an overview of the complex emergency that we are in right now as well as the social-political instability that's still atkint to a world war He noted that we are now in the phase three of the national action plan that is now looking at economics and balancing this with our pandemic situation and that for the first time we have more actually increasing numbers in the regions outside of NCR as well as the more common B1351 more than the B117 variants of concern He also gave us some data regarding being able to look at the utilization of our hospital facilities which actually peak at around 88% during this pandemic where we didn't have rooms available and people were dying in stretchers in the emergency room so our goal really is to save more lives and recover our economy as a vision we have three imperatives and that's TTT that means we have to be able to detect we have to trace and treat we need to improve our border controls and we also have to be very aggressive with our vaccination program increasing the demand for this service as well as being able to monitor the adverse events and in the last phase it's really to be able to adapt to innovation and even perhaps even have our own vaccines our own protocols our own data regarding mixing and matching that's still up in the air we are very hopeful that there will be more vaccines coming in to the government and to the private sector initiatives and we first heard now about Baccuna Benefits I know mga 28-29 pages Baccuna Benefits I was sent a PDF by one of my classmates Mingita Padilla and we are looking forward to having all these campaigns in order to actually improve the uptake of vaccination several calls have been done we know about the myths about DNA about microchips about nanoparticles we also have private sector initiatives in order to counter the slow rollout and that means making available Samsung Hall other vaccination sites so that it will be more convenient for our seniors and that there's about more than 10 millions that will still have to arrive in the next few weeks or so with more than 8 million now Filipinos having received the vaccine we're very hopeful that we will be able to reach our target and perhaps in one year should be able to mitigate this pandemic so we're now at a daily average of 145,000 and we picked at 150,000 and even top in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam and other neighboring countries so with 5 million now vaccinated tayo naro po ang pinakamabilis di sa Asia and we have four of the seven brands here in the country and with more LGUs scaling up and even doing house to house and even private businesses being involved siguro po ay maatim natin ng ating role so ang main issue po ito ay walang iwanan lahat ng sector of society especially our seniors should be given that vaccination we'll have to exert our best efforts the presentation of for the second speaker Dr. Shelly de la Vega as usual is excellent and very comprehensive as the leading country's leading geriatrician Dr. Shelly de la Vega gave us looking at the number of seniors now in the country and the projection of how many seniors there will be in 2050 dumadami po ang mga seniors natin she highlighted the long haulers and with COVID and because of this she actually emphasized the fact that seniors really need to be vaccinated because of the benefits will really outweigh the risks she gave us fit to fail the study that she did and fairly being a reduced strength we have now about 15% in our population who are frail about 61% who are pre-fail and 19% are robust and therefore she said that those who are pre-fail we can still improve them by giving more support so that they will be with robust health status we need to emphasize that our elderly will need to live meaningful lives and therefore AGSIM is something that we have to combat awag natin pabayangan Although alam natin mapagbigay ang ating seniors ang mga lola-lola we need to look after them and she highlighted the fact that it's really the lack of trust or even the children wouldn't want their senior elders to be vaccinated and this is something that we have to address she also said that during the stakeholder meeting there's really a lot of gaps in terms of technology because they don't have gadgets they don't know how to use the internet and also because of accessibility issues they need to be transported and therefore family members would have to bring them to the vaccination sites or vaccinators will have to go to their homes if they cannot travel to the vaccination sites so she also highlighted the fact that we have to recognize our kagawas and barangay so actually really work hard in some barangay to be able to afford this vaccination available to our elderly so to these reactors are truly national gems we have our world class transplant surgeon former D.A. Secretary Icona happy birthday po ule Icona he highlighted that more field health support is needed for aging population he highlighted also the fact that the convenience of seniors will need to be considered and categorization is actually something that should be done because the needs of the 60-70 age group is different from the needs of the 80-90 years old age group and technology and transportation gaps that will have to be considered will have to also look at types of data that need to be upgraded including giving more attention to the 75 and above even for field health benefits so again thank you sir for the reaction we will never forget you as secretary of health because you were really the one who enhanced hospital facilities all over the country and allowed the country to answer this pandemic in a better way the second reactor is also of course a national gem public health expert and chair commissioner Dr. Lillian de Lasliagas who gave the opinion and also presented some needs that will have to be highlighted at comprehensive epidemiological data that was given to us to be given to the public she highlighted the fact that data profiling as she agrees with ICON I was sure to be done she also presented us interestingly some constructs gave us the opinion that maybe the elderly hindi naman nila ayaw ayaw ko ba o natatakot ng ako hindi ko siguro ayaw pero may ako question pa na dapat masagot and because of the several brands that are available they want to know ano pa talagang mas maganda at mas magandang brand for my vaccination so she actually highlighted the importance of combi communication in order to actually influence behavior and the importance of risk benefit analysis being able to convince them in order that they will be they will take up this vaccination manaming naman mga controversies for example whereas our elders were not allowed to go out now gusto natin silang pala basin for this vaccination so how do we ensure their safety so I think that has to be addressed according to her bakit tina lang ako mag-stay at home atotan naman hindi naman pala ko mag-protection ng vaccination so that I think she highlighted also needs to be addressed and of course the perceived costs of possible complication and even death from the vaccination has to be also addressed so sabi nga niya, mahalang mamantay mahaba ang linya mahirap, mainip may dengbak siya, scandal pa tayo she's highlighting the fact that we need to communicate better so thank you mam for highlighting also infodemic, this is really something that we are all grappling with right now so there was really a great open forum as usual and we basically were saying that we are doing well but we need to focus greater efforts in vaccinating our senior citizens even as we ramp up the A4 and the essential workers we need to also look at our A2, our seniors and we need the family to be involved and this family centered care and effort for vaccination of seniors was also highlighted by Dr. Ted by Dr. Shelley and also of course agreed upon by Dr. Lillian de la Siagas and Icona so basically the national ID system was highlighted as a possible way later in the future to make us better to pandemics like this and to be able to give better public health service to our citizenry so mga lolo at lola magpabakuna na po kayo sana po ay itong webinar natin ay nakatulong sa inyo at ang anak taman ako sabi nyo po si lola at lola dali nyo po sila sa vaccination I did that for my mother 95 years old I brought her to the vaccination site Iko yung syringe binakunahan ko siya sa loob ng sasakyan para hindi na siya bumaba kasi hirap na hirap rin siya bumaba so mga ganito po ay kailangan natin gawin para sa ating mga mahal na lola at lola dahil napaka importante po na mabuhay pa sila ng matagal dahil sila po ay napaka importante rin ang kanilang role dito sa ating society hindi ko maimagine dahil sila po ay isang haligi ng tahanan marahing maraming salamat ko Okay, thank you very much that's Dean Charlotte Chong of D.P. College of Medicine always giving us a very good summary of a very long discussion but she's able to do it so concise in maraming salamat at Dean Charlotte All right, next week Okay, O Raymond, you wanted to show the results of the poll? Okay, sa just a brief run through of the results of the assessment poll so 90% found that the panelists demonstrated total knowledge of the topic again 90% found that the panelists were well prepared and organized 90% also shared that the panelists spoke clearly and audibly 89% said that the panelists used appropriate language with technical medical jargon adequately explained and then finally 90% of the respondents stated that the panelists contributed to new perspectives and knowledge on managing virus T COVID-19 health issues. Okay, thank you very much So next week Maganda pagusapan natin next week we're going to talk about Part 2, is my LGU prepared for vaccine roll out secret kung siin yung dalawang mayor I hope we're going to get 2 mayors but remember last time we had the mayor of Manila and the mayor of Quezon City we were trying to get 1 or 2 mayors to be with us and I can't announce it until I have confirmation but to unan natin ang pansay ng LGU pagusapan din ngayon natin we talked about the importance of local governments now so we're going to try to get two representatives from local governments and we are going to have a response team U.P. School of Statistics show us how the different local governments are performing so don't forget to be with us next week maywando with you Thank you so maraming salamat po mayjun of overtime po tayo never-day list we are very very happy like I mentioned it's not every day that we get to have a chance to have a commissioner de las yagas and former health secretary on his birthday more than anything po to join us in our panel makita-kita po tayo ulit next week same time from 12 noon to 2 pm it's a date together we can stop COVID-19 so keep safe, keep healthy and see you online we'll stay with you until the coast is clear the other Spain but for my fears the other's lives but for my tears but right behind the mask I look into myself but now do I have strength to carry on my God our Lord what's this going on I need you here to keep me strong I'm here to hold the line I'll keep my word I'll keep my word until my time it's plain to realize it's fine to be afraid just hold on to the word he gave this time we'll come to pass because this salvation makes a last you'll carry you to see the break of day the other Spain but for my fears the other's lives before my tears but right behind the mask I look into myself but now do I have strength to carry on my God our Lord what's this going on I need you here to keep me strong I'm here to hold the line I'll keep my word until my time my fears the other's lives before my tears but right behind the mask I look into myself and ask do I have strength to carry on what is going on I need you here to keep me strong I'm here to hold the line I'll keep my word until my time the other's lives before my tears but right behind the mask I look into myself