No guarantee I won’t get COVID-19 even with vaccination, says Duterte
MANILA, Philippines — “There is no way, guarantee that I will not be a victim of COVID,” President Rodrigo Duterte, who had already been vaccinated for COVID-19, said in a pre-recorded briefing that aired late on Wednesday.
“At no other time in my life [did] I have to contend with the fact that a lot of my friends, those of my age, have been dying,” Duterte said, speaking partly in Filipino. “I do not exclude myself from that reality. I’m old myself.”
Duterte got injected last Monday, May 3, with China’s Sinopharm vaccine, although the Food and Drug had not issued an emergency use authorization for it. The FDA allowed, however, its compassionate use on members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG).
No detailed efficacy data of Sinopharm’s vaccine has been made public, but its developer said the jab was 79.34% effective in preventing people from contracting the disease based on interim data.
