An infectious disease specialist encouraged the public to get inoculated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) regardless of the brand of vaccine.

All vaccines are effective in preventing the severe form of COVID-19, said Dr. Karl Henson, a member of the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Disease Inc.

“Ang gusto natin mangyari, mabakunahan ang maraming, maraming tao sa lalong madaling panahon para mababa iyong kanilang risk nang dying from COVID or from getting severe COVID (What we want to happen is to vaccinate many people as soon as possible to lower their risk of dying from COVID or from getting severe COVID),” he said during a public press briefing on Friday, May 21.

“Ang panawagan natin is kung ano iyong available na bakuna, iyon na yung kuhanin nila kasi lahat naman ng bakuna na may EUA (Emergency Use Authorization) ng FDA (Food and Drug Administration), lahat iyon very, very good ang resulta (Our call is whatever vaccine is available, they should get it. All the vaccines with EUA from the FDA have very good results) in terms of preventing severe COVID and preventing you from dying from COVID,” he added.

Vaccination will also help in curbing the spread of the different variants of coronavirus, said Henson.

“Ang nakikita po natin sa rollout sa buong mundo...maganda pa rin po iyong effect ng mga bakuna doon sa variants. But the way to prevent the variant from spreading even more ay pare-pareho lang: mask wearing, hand hygiene, and physical distancing (What we see in the rollout around the world, the effect of the vaccines in those variants is still good. But the way to prevent the variant from spreading even more is the same: mask wearing, hand hygiene, and physical distancing),” he said.

“Kapag masyadong mataas iyong kaso natin, mas likely na magpu-form ng variants. So gusto nating mabakunahan ang lahat para maprotektahan sila, para bumaba iyong kaso, at para hindi na rin magkaroon ng mga bagong variants pa (When the number of cases is too high, it is more likely to form variants. So we want to vaccinate everyone to protect them, to reduce our cases, and to prevent forming new variants),” he added.