YOU can either believe what he says or not but President Rodrigo Duterte seems definitely right about one thing, if you do not want to get vaccinated then better stay at home to avoid becoming a super spreader of the COVID-19 virus. Or in the opposite scenario which he failed to emphasize, if you are unvaccinated against the disease then better stay home to avoid being the target of the virus, particularly its more transmissible Delta variant.
It’s disheartening to note that although more and more of the general population are now willing to get vaccinated there are still those who adamantly refuse to be inoculated against the COVID-19 virus and offering inane reasons for their refusal such as that vaccines are not needed against COVID-19 or that vaccines will only make you more vulnerable to the virus instead of immunizing you against it. It seems that various reasons abound for those not wanting to get the jab and most of these come from dubious sources generated in the social media.
But the reality of these vaccines tell us that while it does not offer a one hundred percent guarantee of immunity against the COVID-19 virus, it provides, in various degrees and percentages, some measure of protection against being infected with the disease. In other words, it is better to have some kind of protection against the virus than nothing at all. In fact is this not the very basis why most of us have taken to obeying minimum health protocols such as vigorous washing of hands, the use of alcohol, social distancing measures, and wearing of face masks and face shields.
These are all preventive measures designed to insulate to some degree an individual against being infected with the virus. Without these minimum health protocols the virus-infected population would already have reached catastrophic proportions and would have gravely imperiled the survival of humanity against the disease.
There is no question therefore that vaccines and getting inoculated are simply other means, if not a better way, to avoid being infected with the virus or, in a worse case scenario, getting infected but being able to withstand the severe effects of the infection.
Now with the emergence of the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus which is reported to have a very high transmission rate and will cause a more severe illness brought about by the infection there is a grave sense of urgency to have a majority of the population in the country vaccinated at the soonest possible time.
For those who are not yet aware of the grave danger posed by the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus the World Health Organization (WHO) recently came out with a report that “the highly transmissible delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus causing the disease COVID-19, is now present in 124 countries and will become the dominant strain globally in the coming months as it is outcompeting other variants.”
Here in the Philippines, medical experts have so far detected 216 Delta variant cases. But as correctly pointed out by City Mayor Benjie Magalong, the number reported is already after the fact, meaning its detection came out weeks after the infection has already occured. In one case mentioned by the mayor, it took several months before it was determined that the person was infected by the Delta variant of the virus. So it is highly probable that given the high transmissibility of the variant the person infected had also passed the infection to others.
The more immediate concern right now is how to cope with and manage the spread of the Delta variant once it enters the city of Baguio. Because as already voiced out by the city mayor it is not a question of if the Delta variant will make its presence felt in the city but a matter of when it will arrive at our doorsteps.
So if you value the health and safety of the members of your family or if you feel you need to have more protection against the COVID-19 virus, then get the jab.
