News Roundup 21 April 2022
Apr 21, 2022 • 4 min Read
Expert panel prefers switching brands for second COVID-19 booster dose | PHILSTAR.COM – The country’s vaccine expert panel prefers that a heterologous or a different vaccine brand is given as a second booster, its head said Thursday. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration authorized a second booster shot for senior citizens, immunocompromised individuals, and health workers. “It doesn’t need to be the same,” he said. So what’s available in the local government unit or vaccination sites, that’s what we’re going to give,” said Dr. Nina Gloriani, head of the expert panel. (It doesn’t have to be the same vaccine brand as before, as the first dose. We’ll give whatever is available in the local government unit or vaccination sites.) “Actually, we’d prefer heterologous to be a booster because we know that the data there is better. Heterologous provides better protection,” she added. (Actually, we prefer heterologous booster because we know it gives better protection.) According to Gloriani, the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) is ready for the rollout of second booster shots and is just waiting for the final recommendation of the Health Technology Assessment Council. The FDA allowed the administration of a second booster to vulnerable populations at least four months after the first booster. The additional dose can be given earlier to moderately and severely immunocompromised patients subject to the attending physician’s assessment.
Robredo to mark birthday with ‘grand rally’ in Pasay City | INQUIRER.NET – Presidential candidate Vice President Leni Robredo will mark her 57th birthday with a “grand rally” in Pasay City on April 23, a campaign official said Thursday. The rally will be held along Macapagal Boulevard in Pasay City, said former House Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada, the campaign manager of the Robredo-Pangilinan tandem’s Senate slate. The event is initiated and organized by supporters and volunteers as a “birthday gift” to the vice president, Tañada said in a statement. “Kahit birthday niya pinili niyang makasama ang taumbayan. Para sa kanya, ang pamilya nya ay ang mga kababayang Pilipino,” he said. (Even if it’s her birthday, she chose to spend it with Filipinos. For her, her family is her fellow Filipinos.) Organizers, according to Tañada, expressed hope to outdo all the previous political rallies of Robredo in terms of the number of attendees, targeting mostly those still undecided and her new supporters. “Makikita naman natin ito sa darating na Sabado [We will see this on Saturday],” Tañada said as he sees “hundreds of thousands” of people trooping to Macapagal Boulevard for Robredo’s “birthday party.” The event, he noted, will be dubbed “Ang Araw ni Leni, Araw Nating Lahat [Leni’s day is a day for all of us].” Organizers are encouraging supporters to bring friends or family members who are either undecided or are voting for another candidate to attend the event’s “Art Jam,” “Street Party,” and “People’s Rally,” Tañada said. “All colors now are welcome,” he added following the revamp of Robredo-Pangilinan campaign logo into a multi-colored flower in a bid to signify unity. Tañada encouraged those attending Saturday’s event to wear the colors of their aspirations: white for good health, blue for jobs generation, yellow for better education, red for food security, pink for a better life, and other colors.
Robredo did not make any withdrawal call – spokesperson | INQUIRER.NET – Vice President Leni Robredo did not ask any of her rivals to drop their presidential bids to give way to her candidacy, her spokesperson, Barry Gutierrez, reiterated on Wednesday. Gutierrez denied Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso’s insistent claim that Robredo had talked to him and the other presidential aspirants to withdraw supposedly to make the presidential race into a two-way contest between her and front-runner Ferdinand Marcos Jr. He pointed out that the vice president had actually tried to broker a unity ticket among non-administration candidates before deciding in October 2021 to throw her hat into the May 9 presidential derby. “To be very clear, there have been no active efforts on our end to talk to any candidate, much less ask them to withdraw,” Gutierrez said in a television interview. “Certainly, money was never on the table,” he stressed. “In fact, even if you look at their statements on the supposed talks, only one name was mentioned, (former Quezon City) Mayor Jun Simon.”
