Dengvaxia, a product of the French firm Sanofi, has been met with a maelstrom of blowback from the Philippine public in recent months. The resistance to its use primarily stems from an ill-conceived association between the drug and the deaths of 14 children throughout the country. Dengvaxia is the first vaccine against the Dengue fever virus, a pathogen that infect nearly 400 million every year and can lead to fatal disease. It was administered across the country in 2016 and 2017, reaching almost 800,000 children who may have come in contact with the virus and potentially develop a life-threatening, viral encephalitis. The belief that the vaccine is to blame for the loss of these children has sown a great deal of public distrust in the efficacy and safety of vaccines. As a result, public health officials in the Philippines, like Mr. Enrique Domingo, worry that there may be a subsequent decrease in the vaccination coverage of the country as parents begin to refuse vaccines for their children. In his words, “[their] programs are suffering… people are scared of all vaccines now.” This situation speaks to the complexity of introducing new vaccines and therapeutics into humans on a large scale. Even if the vaccine didn’t engender the deaths of these children, the attribution error can have widespread impacts on immunizations for chicken pox, tetanus, and polio. However, even that assumption controvertible, as Sanofi and the WHO have released statement claiming that the vaccine will lead to an overall reduction in loss of life, but may have long-term effects that were previously unobserved.
-Andrew
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