By Robina Asido

The Palace clarifies that President Rodrigo Duterte ordered people not to get boosters shots after video clips of his TalkTo The People in September 2021 circulated in social media.In his statement, Acting Presidential Spokesperson Karlo Nograles said the video clip was "being shared and utilized by some groups to campaign against the administration of COVID-19 booster shots."

Nograles said the video clip of President Rodrigo Duterte recorded on September 30, 2021, in which he states that two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are sufficient "tama na 'yang dalawang doses" 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 explained

"The situation today is now vastly different. Last November, upon the recommendation of our health experts, the government approved the use of booster doses for all fully vaccinated individuals as we had ample supplies of vaccines and a substantial percentage of our population was already fully vaccinated," he said.

Nograles said "to further encourage the public to get their booster shots, the President in his December 21, 2021 address enjoined the public to 'take advantage' of the country’s sufficient supply of vaccines against COVID-19 and get their booster shots to control the spread of the highly-transmissible 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," he said. DMS