Senator Aquilino Pimentel III on Wednesday, February 9 asked the government to exercise caution in buying COVID-19 vaccines.
‘’Just as I have stated time and time again, COVID-19 should not cause us or anyone to panic. Even the national government should not panic just because it has over supply (for the government’s vaccination and booster shots),’’ he said.
The former Senate president recalled that all COVID-19 vaccines are still on the experimental stage. Therefore, vaccination should not be mandatory, he added.
Pimentel stressed that no one knows the possible ‘’long term side effects’’ of these vaccines.
Thus, the policy should be ‘’vaccination of the willing,’’ he pointed out.
‘’At sama sama tayong magdasal na sana nga dahil sa omicron na mas mild daw na version ng Covid-19 ay malapit na matapos ang pandemyang ito (We should all pray that this pandemic will end as the new COVID-19 variant is mild),’’ he said.
The National Task Force against COVID-19 stated that more than 200 million doses of vaccines have arrived in the country as of February 7 and that there are more than 60 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated.