Palace justifies delayed second Sinopharm dose for Duterte

Malacañang justified the delayed administration of the second Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine dose on President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday, saying it was approved by the President’s doctor.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. was responding to the question as to why the President got his second dose of Sinopharm more than two months after the first dose even if the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends only a three- to four-week interval between two Sinopharm doses.

“Nung tinurukan po si Presidente, andun po ang personal physician niya. Hindi kasama sa picture pero he was present (The President's physician was there when he got his second dose. He wasn't in the photo but he was present),” Roque said.

“It was a decision of his attending physician (to give it after two months), that is between the President and his attending physician,” Roque added.

Duterte got his first Sinopharm dose in May, or around a month before the Philippine Food and Drug Administration issue emergency use authorization (EUA) on Sinopharm.

Unlike other COVID-19 vaccine brands Pfizer-BioNTech, Astrazeneca, Moderna, Sputnik V, Sinovac, Johnson and Johnson, Novovax, and Bharat Biotech whose respective application for EUA was filed by vaccine manufacturers, Sinopharm’s EUA application was filed by the Department of Health.

It was Health Secretary Francisco Duque III who administered the two doses of Sinopharm on the President. -MDM, GMA News