Duterte's delayed 2nd COVID-19 vaccine dose a call between him, his doctor: spokesman

Video courtesy of PTV 

President Rodrigo Duterte this week took his second COVID-19 vaccine dose some months after he received his initial jab, according to Malacañang.

The World Health Organization recommends an interval of 3–4 weeks between the first and second dose of Sinopharm's vaccine that Duterte, 76, used. 

"Iyan po ay isang bagay na (that is a matter) between the President and his attending physician," said Duterte's spokesman Harry Roque, when asked about the 10-week gap of the president's vaccine doses. 

Duterte's physician was in attendance when he completed his immunization last Monday, Roque said in a press briefing. 

Experts have repeatedly urged the public to make time for their second COVID-19 shot to get full protection from vaccines.

In a video prepared by the WHO and published in February, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, the organization's Chief Scientist, said "it doesn't matter if it's early by a few days or late by a few days or even a couple of weeks."

"It's important to go back and get that second dose because the first dose actually presents this new antigen to the immune system to prime it. And the second dose is the one that really gives a boost to the immune system," she said.

"So that the antibody response, as well as T cell mediated response, they are very strong and they also develop a memory response, which then lasts for a long time,. So that when the body sees this antigen again, this virus protein again, it knows that it needs to react quickly," she added.

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