It’s final. President Rodrigo Duterte will have his COVID-19 vaccine in private because he’s going to be injected in his buttocks, his spokesman Harry Roque said today.
“He has said so. As he said, because he is going to be injected in the ass, it cannot be done in public,” Roque said in English and Filipino in his daily press briefing.
Read: You First: Duterte to get shot of Sputnik V on May 2021 after joint clinical trials
Critics have encouraged Duterte to be vaccinated in public, just like other world leaders such as Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Vice President Leni Robredo, one of his vocal critics, had said that if the chief executive gets a public jab, Filipinos will be convinced of the efficacy and safety of the COVID vaccine.
This prompted Duterte’s former personal assistant, Senator Christopher “Bong” Go, to tell Robredo that she should get vaccinated in public as well, leading the vice president’s spokesman to say that she had always been willing to do such.
It was in August 2020 when Duterte said that he was willing to be the first to be vaccinated with the Russian-made Sputnik vaccine, but changed his mind when his government had procured vials of Sinovac from China. He said earlier this month that government officials would be the last to be inoculated against the coronavirus.
It’s unclear when the president will be inoculated, or the brand of vaccine that will be given to him.
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