Rodrigo Duterte, who was criticised for getting inoculated with the yet-unapproved Sinopharm vaccine has asked the Chinese Embassy to take back 1,000 donated Sinopharm vaccine doses.
“Here’s a deal. I told the ambassador that Sinopharm was criticised for not going through an examination. I said: Just remove it. You withdraw all Sinopharm vaccines — 1,000 of them,” Duterte said, as quoted by the Inquirer media outlet.
The Philippine president also said he only got the Sinopharm shot under a compassionate use clause, and that his doctors had advised him to get vaccinated.
"Don't follow in my footsteps. It's dangerous because there are no studies, it might not be good for the body. Just let me be the sole person to receive it," Duterte said, according to local media reports.
Duterte also asked China to only send the Sinovac vaccine, which has been given the green light for use in the Philippines.
The Philippines has approved several coronavirus vaccines, including the ones by Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, as well as Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinovac.
