Amid the reported low acceptability of Chinese made COVID-19 vaccines in the country, health experts stressed that "any vaccine is better than no vaccine" to avoid severe infection and death.

"All the vaccines will protect you and protect us from severe disease and from death. And we do it out of love for our families, right? Because if you get sick, your family will be at risk, they will lose you, they will lose forever," Father Nicanor Austriaco, a scientist, said in a Palace briefing Tuesday.

Austriaco said because of the global shortage of COVID - 19 vaccines, "there is no promise" that the country will be able to acquire more Western vaccine brands.

"It’s better to go and get vaccinated now because there is no promise you will get Pfizer, Moderna, especially since the United States is about to start a booster program for Pfizer and Moderna and we do not know how that will impact the worldwide supply of Pfizer, Moderna," he said.

"We hope it will not but we’ve seen before that the US will start buying hundreds of millions again. This will put an immense pressure on the world supply so go and get vaccinated now!," he added.

Infectious disease expert Edsel Salvana also reiterates that the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines from China.

"Sinovac and Sinopharm have WHO emergency use listing. It means the WHO confirmed its safety and effectiveness of these vaccines," he said.

"I have no doubt that Sinovac, Sinopharm, Pfizer, Moderna, all these vaccines continue to protect against severe disease," said Salvana.

"It's very, very important that we take what vaccine is offered so that we get protection as soon as possible otherwise we put our lives at risk and we’ll prolong this pandemic," he added.

Salvana reiterated the importance of getting vaccinated of any COVID-19 vaccines available in the country after Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte proposed the purchase of more western vaccine brands after the local government reported the low acceptability of Chinese vaccines. Robina Asido/DMS