The Department of Health (DOH) urges Filipinos not to listen and believe unverified information about the COVID-19 vaccine after a doctor's group reportedly encouraged people not to patronize the vaccination.

"The information that they spread is wrong, especially that we are in a situation that is very risky for everybody because of the Delta variant. The evidence and study all over the world already show the effectiveness of these vaccines," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergiere, DOH spokesperson said in a public briefing on Saturday.

"We hope that our people will be discerning and let us avoid listening to the unverified or unofficial information like this because our government shows us evidence that these vaccines will protect us all especially with the threat of Delta variant," she added.

Despite the statement of the Concerned Doctors and Citizens of the Philippines who claimed in a forum that COVID-19 vaccines are not studied thoroughly, Vergiere emphasized the effectiveness of the vaccines.

"We see the situation right now in UK and Portugal where their cases raised but if we take a close look the number of fatalities is very small because the number of vaccinated individuals in their country is high compared to other the country in the world like in Asian region," she said.

"This is just one of the evidence that vaccination can protect and can prevent severe infection, hospitalization and death," she added. Robina Asido/DMS