Will you take the jab?
After almost a year of lockdowns and curtailment of the people’s right to travel and their freedom of locomotion, the government is now pinning its hope of reviving the economy through its vague and non-transparent vaccination program. Recent reports indicate that the local government units are close to starting the vaccination program. The City of Tagbilaran is finalizing talks with British vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca. In fact, there is an ongoing registration for individuals regarding the vaccination program.
According to the World Health Organization, when a person gets vaccinated against a disease, his/her risk of infection is also reduced – so he/she is also less likely to transmit the virus or bacteria to others. As more people in a community get vaccinated, fewer people remain vulnerable, and there is less possibility for an infected person to pass the pathogen on to another person. Lowering the possibility for a pathogen to circulate in the community protects those who cannot be vaccinated (due to health conditions, like allergies, or their age) from the disease targeted by the vaccine.
Vaccination becomes an effective means of defeating COVID-19 by achieving herd immunity. This happens when immunity develops in a population either through vaccination or through previous infection. Herd immunity does not mean unvaccinated or individuals who have not previously been infected are themselves immune. Instead, herd immunity exists when individuals who are not immune, but live in a community with a high proportion of immunity, have a reduced risk of the disease as compared to non-immune individuals living in a community with a small proportion of immunity.
Although there are people who strongly believe that the decision to get vaccinated is a personal choice that should not be forced upon people by the government, the participation in the vaccination program is an individual’s contribution to the eradication of COVID-19 and to the promotion of public health in general.
Owing to the past controversies in some vaccination programs of the government, it is imperative on the part of our government officials to win the trust of the people to contribute to this endeavor by having themselves vaccinated. It is not enough for the government just to make vaccines available even for free. It takes winning people’s trust to make the program successful since even a most well-funded program is bound to fail if there is a high level of distrust on the people implementing the same. In that case, the pursuit of herd immunity may just become a wild-goose chase.