As part of the 13th SyenSaya – The Los Baños Science Festival, the Los Baños Science Community Foundation, Inc. (LBSC) conducted the Technoforum on COVID-19 Vaccines and Herd Immunity on 25 November 2021 at 9:00 AM. The online event was held via Zoom and streamed live through the LBSCFI Facebook page. Ms. Krizzia Mei Esperanza of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)-CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), a member agency of LBSC and current Chair of the Technoforum Committee, served as the host.
Dr. Joane Serrano delivering the Opening Remarks during the Technoforum.
Dr. Joane V. Serrano, Director of the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) Office of Public Affairs, delivered the welcome remarks. In her opening message, Dr. Serrano acknowledged that the celebration’s theme–“Agham at Teknolohiya: Tugon sa Hamon ng Panahon”–is truly appropriate and relevant to our country’s recovery and freedom from the challenges caused by the pandemic. She stated that one of the positive impacts of virtually holding the Technoforum is that it has reached more Filipinos. She also shared that the forum, which was originally attended by those solely from Los Baños and nearby towns, has attracted attendees from different parts of the Philippines last year.
Ms. Emelita P. Bagsit, Regional Director of DOST-CALABARZON, gave an overview of this year’s Technoforum. Ms. Bagsit expressed her gratitude and appreciation to the guests, speakers, agency heads and representatives of the LBSC-member agencies, and participants from all over the country. She explained that the LBSC can be aptly considered a science community since Los Baños has been declared by law as a special science and nature city of the Philippines. She reiterated the forum’s purpose which is to raise public awareness about vaccine hesitancy and herd immunity and, most importantly, to encourage our citizens to get vaccinated against COVID-19 so that we can help achieve herd immunity in the country.
Ms. Jhoys Landicho-Guevarra, Senior Science Research Specialist in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics of the Department of Health’s (DOH) Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), talked about her research paper on vaccine hesitancy and discussed her perspectives on vaccine confidence. Ms. Guevarra defined vaccine hesitancy as a delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccine services. She shared that vaccine hesitancy is complex and context specific varying across time, place, and vaccines and influenced by factors such as complacency, convenience, and confidence. She concluded her presentation by providing recommendations, such as optimizing delivery channels and messengers of vaccine health information, strengthening healthcare workers’ communication skills, and developing interventions driven by empathy and aimed at regaining trust, among others.
Dr. Nina Gloriani, Chairperson of the Vaccine Expert Panel under the Technical Working Group for COVID-19 Vaccines of DOST’s Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD), discussed the science behind the development, evaluation, and approval of COVID-19 vaccines. Dr. Gloriani assured everyone that vaccines are developed based on science and that they undergo extensive preclinical development in the laboratory and on animals before proceeding to clinical trials on humans. She stressed that each of these studies requires the appropriate design to reach scientifically sound conclusions while protecting the participants and their identifiable human information. She explained that vaccine effectiveness is more important than efficacy as the former is the protection of the vaccine in preventing disease under real-world conditions after vaccine deployment to millions of people. She ended her discussion by sharing key messages on vaccines, and one of them is the fact that stringent scientific process of evaluation looks carefully at safety, efficacy, immunogenicity, and other data from various phases of vaccine development, using World Health Organization (WHO) criteria and international standards.
Dr. Ruby Anne King, Assistant Scientist of PCHRD-DOST, explained herd immunity and its importance in eradicating the pandemic. Dr. King reiterated the importance of herd immunity, also known as population immunity, which confers protection to susceptible individuals, especially those who cannot be vaccinated. She explained that acquired immunity is established either through natural infection with a pathogen or through immunization with a vaccine. She clarified the idea of achieving herd immunity by natural infection is not recommended for the following reasons: it comes at a great cost, such as unnecessary infections, suffering and death; COVID-19 could have long-term health impacts; and we don’t have the complete picture of immunity from such infection. She closed her talk by highlighting the important points of her discussion, particularly the vaccines’ role in achieving herd immunity and our responsibilities to continue practicing protective and preventive measures, such as vaccination, minimum public health standards, and following policies based on inputs by health and science experts.
Dr. Alvin Isidoro, Municipal Health Officer of Los Baños, provided updates on the current status and initiatives of the COVID-19 Vaccination Program of Los Baños. Dr. Isidoro shared that, as of 24 November 2021, Los Baños has the highest number of vaccinated individuals–up to 65.47%–based on target population. He added that all categories, including the pediatric age group (12 – 17 years old), are qualified for vaccination. Scheduling of vaccines is done through short-messaging service (SMS) or texting as well as walk-in procedure for senior citizens, pregnant, and persons with disability (PWD) for primary doses.
The guest speakers and host of Technoforum: Dr. Nina Gloriani (top left), Dr. Ruby Anne King (top right), Dr. Alvin Isidoro (middle left), Ms. Jhoys Landicho-Guevarra (middle right), and Ms. Krizzia Mei Esperanza (bottom).
An open forum followed after the speakers delivered their messages. The participants had the chance to ask questions and interact with the speakers. Certificates of Appreciation were presented to the speakers as a token of gratitude for their invaluable contribution to the Technoforum. Hon. Antonio Kalaw, Mayor of the Municipality of Los Baños, formally closed the program. To view the recording of the Technoforum, you may access the LBSCI Facebook page.
SyenSaya is the flagship program of the LBSC celebration in accordance with DOST’s National Science and Technology Week (NSTW). The annual event highlights the achievements of the 24-member agencies and organizations of LBSCFI in the field of science and technology. It started in 2008 and features Wonderama, Technoforum, and the R&D Awarding Ceremony.
Sustainable Development Goals
Written and Screen Captures by Jaime Guimbao
Edited by Joane V. Serrano and Anna Cañas-Llamas
#UPOpenUniversity
