It is important to get vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), especially now with the presence of the more transmissible variants of the virus, health experts reiterated.
The vaccines can help protect an individual against developing the severe form of COVID-19, said Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director-General Rolando Enrique Domingo on Friday, June 25.
"Bagamat nakikita sa mga pag aaral na kahit pa nababawasan ng kaunti ang effectivity ng mga vaccines kapag nagkakaroon ng bagong variants, pero hindi po nawawala completely ang protection na ibibigay nila sa atin kontra sa sakit (Although studies have shown that even the effectiveness of vaccines is slightly reduced when new variants are developed, they do not completely lose the protection they give us against the disease)," he said in a public press briefing.
"At kung meron man pong magkasakit, nagiging mild lang at hindi namamatay (And if someone gets sick, they are just mild cases and will not die)," he added.
The COVID-19 vaccination rollout should also be hastened to protect more people, especially now with the threat of the Delta variant, said Domingo.
"Kailangan mapabilis natin ang pagbabakuna ng karamihan sa atin para hindi na kumalat dito kung sakali man makapasok itong mga variants na ito (We need to speed up the vaccination to stop the spread in case these variants get in)," he said.
"Our border control now is very strict to make sure that the Delta variant does not come in. But if it does come in, mas mahirap pa rin itong kumalat kung karamihan sa atin ay bakunado na (But if it does come in, it will be harder for it to spread if most of us are already vaccinated)," he added.
Vaccines are needed to “reduce the burden on hospitalization,” said Department of Science and Technology's vaccine expert panel (VEP) member Dr. Isagani Padolina.
“COVID-19 vaccination is an important tool to help stop the pandemic because it will reduce transmissibility...you’ll prevent severe hospitalization,” he said in a separate press briefing.
The vaccines will also prevent the virus from mutating, said Padolino.
“It will prevent mutation because you don’t have it replicating that much anymore. Mutations only happen when they replicate, so, the more replication happens, the more mutations (will) happen,” he added.