Palace warns against misinterpreting old video of Duterte discouraging booster shots

President Rodrigo Duterte in his second taped “Talk to the People” in September 2021/ Screengrab from PTV-RTVM

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang warned Monday against misinterpreting an old video in which President Rodrigo Duterte discouraged people from getting booster shots against COVID-19.

Cabinet secretary Karlo Nograles cited Duterte’s video clip from September 2021. The President said two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are enough, which some groups are using to push against booster shots.

“The said video clip should be viewed in the proper context. At that point, 21 million of our countrymen were fully vaccinated, and our priority was to increase this number, which is why the provision of booster shots had yet to be approved,” he said in a statement.

“The situation today is now vastly different,” he added.

Nograles noted that the government had approved booster doses for all fully vaccinated individuals as there is an ample supply of the vaccines.

He added that Duterte, in December last year, even encouraged the public to “take advantage” of the country’s sufficient supply of vaccines against COVID-19 and get their booster doses to control the spread of the Omicron variant.

“We reiterate that there is clear evidence that COVID-19 booster shots provide additional protection against the virus, and urge the public to refrain from sharing disinformation that will endanger the lives of our kababayan, compromise our efforts to contain COVID-19, and undermine our campaign to beat the disease,” Nograles said.

In his Talk to the People on Sept. 30, 2021, Duterte told Filipinos not to get COVID-19  booster shots since getting more than the normal could pose health risks and would also mean depriving other Filipinos of the vaccine.

“Tama na ‘yang dalawang doses, ‘wag na ninyong sobrahan, delikado,” he said.

(The two doses are enough, don’t exceed because it’s dangerous.)

READ: Duterte on COVID booster shots: Tama na ‘yang dalawang doses, ‘wag sobrahan, delikado

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