A party list congressman on Saturday urged the Department of Health (DOH) and the Food and Drug Authority (FDA) to expand the eligibility criteria for the second booster shots of Covid-19 vaccine to persons having comorbidities.
Rep. Rodolfo Ordales of the Senior Citizen party-list group said expanding the eligibility for the second booster will improve the protection of those in the A3 category “because of their varying medical conditions.”
He asked that eligibility for the second booster shot be expanded to include the adult children, as well as grandchildren to seniors in the A3 category.
“I also ask the FDA to approve the best of the COVID vaccines which still have only emergency use authority (EUA). Full approval will mean issuance of the certificate of product registration, thereby making the COVID vaccines more widely available. Their inoculation will be under the direct close supervision of doctors at the hospitals and clinics,” Ordales said in a statement.
The process, he said could start with vaccines which already have the full approval in the United States for adults.
“Full approval will result in a jump in vaccination rates because of the wider and easier availability. Nasa 68 million plus pa lang ang fully vaccinated,” he added.
This developed as the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) lauded a decision of the DOH to expand the national rollout of the 2nd Covid-19 booster shot to include seniors and health care workers.
“This decision, following the recommendation of the Health Technology Assessment Council, is timely and in line with the recent DOH findings on the transmission of the more contagious Omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1,” the Commission said in a statement Saturday.
The CHR maintained those who remain reluctant to get vaccinated, and those that have received their primary dose, to complete the subsequent vaccine doses necessary for full protection.
“Let us remember that as more individuals in our community get vaccinated, herd immunity makes it less likely for individuals to get sick— decreasing the spread of Covid-19 and halting its repeated mutations, that cause new variants, due to replication. There is no mutation without replication,” the CHR said.
