Public urged to wait for reformulated COVID-19 vaccines: expert

MANILA - The public is urged to wait for reformulated vaccines against COVID-19 instead of getting a second booster shot, an infectious disease expert said Wednesday.

Currently, there is "good evidence" that the first booster has a "very big" protection against COVID-19 versus the second booster, according to Dr. Edsel Salvana, member of the Department of Health's Technical Advisory Group.

"Pinag-aaralan po natin ito and alam naman natin may panibagong reformulated vaccines that are already in the pipelines," he said in a televised briefing.

(We're studying this and we know there are new reformulated vaccines that are already in the pipelines.)

"Baka mas maging mabisa kung hintayin natin yun, rather than ipilit natin itong old vaccines na ang ating ebidensiya is not very strong para for those population na mataas naman talaga ang survival rates... compared to people who are immunocompromised."

(Maybe these new vaccines will be more effective rather than we push for the old vaccines which we don't have a very strong evidence for the population that have high survival rates... compared to people who are immunocompromised.)

The Philippines has so far approved second booster shots to be administered to the immunocompromised, the elderly, and healthworkers.

As of Monday, some 69 million or 76.76 percent of the eligible 90 million population in the country have been fully vaccinated against the respiratory disease, according to Malacanang. Of those with primary doses, 13.89 million have received their booster shots.