Recently, the Philippine Government has purchased a huge number of vaccines for its inoculation program aimed to achieve herd immunity to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
“Sisiguraduhin natin na ang ating mga lokal na pamahalaan ay magkakaroon ng mga bakuna [We will make sure that our local governments will have vaccines],” said Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque stated in a press briefing.
However, people have been adamant on getting the vaccine because many of them do not trust the vaccines available in the market. Many of them would even choose to have self-medication rather than getting a dose.
By January this year, Roque announced that only health workers can choose their vaccines under the government’s vaccination program, emphasizing that all other individuals do not have a choice on what vaccine they will get, and cannot be “picky.” But by March, when asked by Rappler, Inc., Roques said that President Rodrigo Duterte will have the same privilege because of his position. And by May, the Department of Health (DOH) said that they will no longer allow the local governments to announce which brand of vaccines will be available at the inoculation sites to avoid too many people gathering there.
With his announcement of having the president take his chosen vaccine, Sinopharm, people started to retaliate and demand that they also be given the chance to choose their vaccines. Moreover, several ideas about the danger of some brands have been circulating, adding to the uproar of the masses, some due to the president’s remark that he does not trust the vaccines from the western countries. This then caused the increasing number of Filipinos denying the vaccines. Some of them even have proliferated disinformation about the vaccines just to discourage the people from getting a dose.
Moreover, the stance of the Malacañang has always been shaky, changing from time to time in favor of the people inside. This made people distrust the government and many of its rules and projects. If this continues, the government will fail to achieve its aim to have herd immunity as soon as possible. This will also cause the procurement of vaccines laid to waste and the efforts squandered.
Now the government needs to reevaluate their plans and policies to stop the people from getting disappointed. The very reason why the efforts of the officials are not met with good results are because they do not have a clear plan of action and coordination. If it continues with its recent stances, it will eventually lose its power over the people.
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