THIS week, we find out that businesses in the city are starting to give out freebies and discounts to fully vaccinated residents who are able to show proof of their full vaccination – via a valid vaccination card or a QR code for the more technologically advanced.
On paper, the reason for the drive is sound. Give little incentives to push people further toward taking the jab. A little carrot for the rabbit to pursue down the right path.
Some other places in the country have gone bigger and done things like raffles for vehicles and houses, and everywhere across the country, governments are trying all manner of incentives and information drives to get people to take the shot.
This is fascinating to me. The idea that people still need to get an extra push to be convinced to take the vaccine is something that I both understand but also fail to properly absorb and comprehend internally as an individual.
On the one hand, I can understand why people are hesitating to go for the vaccine. Vaccination – and the majority of the current pandemic in its entirety – seems mystical and arcane to the outsiders who do not specialize or profess in the medical field. It is the art of stabbing someone with a special combination of appropriate chemicals and microorganisms in the hopes that the stab ends giving immunity to a single disease or family of diseases.
Of course, the actual process is a lot more technical and logical once one gets into the nitty-gritty of the science behind vaccination – which varies from vaccine to vaccine – but the barrier of entry is undeniable.
The complexity breeds doubt, and doubt breeds hesitation and fear. We fear and distrust that which we do not fully understand.
So it stands to reason that people who are not well-informed would have doubts and fear of the vaccination process and the vaccines themselves. I understand that on a logical level.
There are also other valid doubts such as efficacy of the vaccines and the potential for side effects. These are more reasonable doubts to have, especially considering how we are unable to pick our own vaccines and have to get what is available, which includes the questionable efficacy of Sinovac.
This is where I would like to posit my own mindset. While it is true that none of the vaccines are able to protect us from COVID 100 percent of the time – such efficacy is practically impossible due to multiple complex health factors – it boosts your chances. Even a 70 percent protection is better than zero percent.
I have received the vaccine, and while I would rather I got a different one (I got Sinovac), and while I do agree that ideally we should be able to choose what vaccines we get, I think that we should still take what we can where we can.
And I believe that we should take all safety precautions we can, regardless of whether or not we get vaccinated – and even after getting the jab. For the foreseeable future, we will have to live this way – hiding out in our homes, going out fully covered and staying away from people we do not know to be safe.
Vaccination, and the more of it we get done, is a way to get us out of these times. It may take some time, and it may raise some questions, but currently, it is our best bet.
And I know that nothing I say will be able to dissuade those who have completely locked out the option of taking the vaccine out of their minds. There are reasons to doubt, of varying validity.
So by all means, if the city can keep piling on carrots to entice the rabbit, then go ahead, that we may have our den made safe.
