The National Vaccination Operations Center is now considering donating COVID-19 vaccines close to expiry dates to other countries as Filipinos have been turning down jabs, Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, who is chairperson of NVOC, said Sunday morning.
“Our health workers are really struggling to convince people to get vaccinated… They go from house to house but even though some are at home, they still don’t want to get vaccinated,” Cabotaje said in an interview, adding it would be better to donate to make sure the jabs don’t go to waste.
She was careful to assure Filipinos that the government still has a substantial stockpile of vaccines even if some of them will be donated.
She also added that the government was able to vaccinate some 836,000 Filipinos in the first two days of the Bayanihan Bakunahan Part 4, good for around 44 percent of its 1.8 million target. The government will continue its national vaccination drive until Tuesday in a number of regions, she said but admitted that “there is a problem with the supply of vaccines for children aged 5 to 11 years old.”
“Some people still don’t get vaccinated or take booster shots due to complacency because COVID-19 cases are low… We’re already studying which countries [we can donate to] and what brands they can accept,” she added.
“Everything that can be done has been done to bring the vaccine closer to the public.”
Complacency has been the downfall of many critical programs in the past and that is something we Filipinos cannot allow to take hold as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic that is only experiencing a lull but is not yet over. If we are going to aspire for a new normal and an eventual Alert Level Zero, the effort to continue vaccination so we can achieve herd immunity and our constant compliance with health protocols will be key. Let us not allow this pause to be reason to let our guard down and wait for another surge before reacting with urgency and dispatch but continue to be proactive and do what we have been doing and must do so we can protect the population and beat back the coronavirus.
Complacency is dangerous as it can put all the effort that we have put into fighting this pandemic to waste. Let us see this through before putting our guard down. Minimum health protocols and complete vaccination, including booster shots, will be key and it is up to us to see this through so we can have a chance at ending the pandemic.*
