To Jab or Not to Jab… That is the Question
Note: The Word “Jab” in the title refers to injection or vaccination.
Sunday, February 28, 2021, 600,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines, a vaccine produced by a Chinese pharmaceutical company, Sinovac Biotech, arrived in the Philippines. It’s the first shipment of vaccines donated by China.
The arrival of the vaccine signals the start of the vaccination campaign launched by the Philippine government who planned to get at least 70 million Filipinos, or a third of the country’s population, vaccinated in the next three years.
Sounds good, right? Well, no. Not really…
Normally, it’s a good thing to be vaccinated for a deadly disease but for the majority of the Filipino people that was not the case.
Why?
Two Reasons: Fear and Mistrust.
The Source of all Fear (and Mistrust)
As mentioned, Majority of Filipinos didn’t want to be vaccinated. The reasons for this were fear and the other mistrust.
The Filipino people are very fearful, or rather, terrified of the side-effects of the vaccine. This was mostly due to reported “dangerous” side effects of the vaccines that are going to be used.
When the vaccine was initially introduced to the world, many people were skeptical to the effectives of the vaccines but many more were afraid of its side effects.
Reports after reports of the vaccine’s alleged side effects fill up the news, social media post and the likes. Videos of people claiming to be suffering from the vaccine’s alleged side effects were posted and shared again and again.
The Filipinos, having just suffered from the dengue vaccine controversy were more fearful and mistrustful of the side effects.
The Sanofil Pasteur-produced Dengvaxia, a vaccine against dengue was said to have been hastily introduced and used on Filipino school children, resulted in the deaths of several of the children who took the vaccine.
The Dengvaxia controversy resulted in a huge criminal lawsuit involving government officials, medical professionals and researchers who might face up to 48 years prison sentence if convicted.
After seeing the result of the Dengvaxia vaccine, Filipinos are naturally spooked of the new Covid-19 vaccine. If a vaccine like Dengvaxia that was developed and tested for 20 years had such deadly side effects, what’s more of a hastily developed and largely untested vaccine?
The other reason for the fear was not due to health reason but political reason. China, the producer of the vaccine was highly unpopular to the majority of the Filipino due to the issue in the west Philippine Sea.
If you have been following the news, China, the Philippines, and other Southeast Asian countries have territorial dispute in the contested waters. The Philippines, who was the nearest to some of the contested territories had won the 2016 Permanent Court Arbitration which granted it rights to majority of the contested territories and dismissing China’s so called “historical claims.”
Sadly, China refuses to accept the result of the arbitration and instead becoming more aggressive to Filipino fishermen who were fishing in Philippine waters.
Anyway, Filipinos who were mistrustful of China thinks that the vaccine donations would weaken the Philippines’ claims in the disputed waters; a claim that the Duterte government vehemently denied as baseless.
But seeing how China forcefully occupies another island near the Philippine territory made some people think that the claim might not be so baseless after all…
Lastly, mistrust.
Due to the reputation of Chinese made products, many Filipinos question the effectiveness of the vaccine itself. According to some reports, the Sinovac made vaccine only have 50.4% effectiveness.
The report came out after the Brazilian clinical trials. Other trials from other countries ramped up the result to 79% effectiveness which was still much lower in comparison to Pfizer and Moderna made vaccines.
Given the news about the effectiveness (or lack thereof) and the reported side effects of the vaccine, and the fact that most Filipinos distrust Chinese made products in the first place, the Philippine government’s vaccination program is facing a roadblock.
So what will the Philippine government do? Will they stop the vaccination program? Or…
Should there be Mandatory Vaccination?
There had been talks of mandatory vaccination on going right now. There were some Filipino government officials supporting calls for mandatory inoculation due to low public opinions of the ongoing vaccination program.
A few politicians wanted police power to force the people to take the vaccine. If people still refused to be vaccinated even after the police power, they might face fines or even jail time. Fortunately, granting police power was not as easy as it sounds.
After all, the rights of the Filipino people is under the protection of the Philippine constitution.
But there were also laws that allow it.
For example, if cases of infections and death increased significantly, the Philippine government might just invoke laws that would grant them police power. So that option’s not out of the question yet.
How about local governments refusing to service Filipinos who are not vaccinated?
There have been some concerning rumors going around in my town lately. The rumor was about how local government offices might refuse service to Filipinos who refuses to be vaccinated.
Since, I rarely go out lately; I haven’t verified the veracity of the rumors yet. But according to some of my relatives, there might be truth to it. After all, when there’s smoke, there’s fire.
The rumor started after the government vaccination program finally reached our town. I find the rumor concerning because most of the people I knew didn’t want to be inoculated.
So if the rumors were true, does that mean that I and many people I knew won’t be able to get avail of government services like we’re entitled to? Will our documents not be processed at the local government office because we are not vaccinated?
Although that would be infringement of our rights under the Philippine constitution, our local government might just do that to force us to get vaccinated.
After all cities in the Philippines have their own ordinance. And judging by how desperate our government to end the lockdown, they might just turn a blind eye to it…
My Thoughts
Like many Filipinos, I don’t want to get vaccinated, or at least, I don’t want to be inoculated by a vaccine made from China.
Yes, I’m afraid of the side effects of the Chinese made vaccines. And the reports of the potential side effects and the questionable effectiveness of the vaccine are definitely not boosting my confidence.
If not for the fact that I might possibly lose access to services provided by the local, I won’t even consider it.
But now, I’m starting to consider being vaccinated very seriously. If the Philippine government really made it mandatory to be inoculated by the Chinese made vaccine, I might not know what to do.
How about you guys?
What are your thoughts on the matter? If you’re in my shoes, will you take the vaccine or not? Please write your thoughts in the comment section.
Thanks for reading.
Image Source: Pixabay
