DESPITE the best efforts of the Iloilo City government to put an end to this pandemic which has ravaged our country, destroyed lives and professions, businesses and everything that moves, there is strong hesitance from the populace not to take the vaccine against coronavirus disease.
It boggles the mind. Why refuse the vaccine which will save your life?
For a long sufferer who has been denied night life, massage parlors and rowdy gatherings among drunken friends, I conclude this is greatly due to electronic technology…in other words, our cell phones.
The Philippines is the No. 1 country in our part of Asia which has the most cell phones and uses it. Everyone has it; from the corporate CEO, public officials to the passenger driver, the laundry woman, even the tubâ gatherer.
Because of the indubitable Filipino trait of being a “kutso-kutsero” grew our Tower of Babel. Since the pandemic started last year, our cell phones have never cooled down. They are bombarded by countless opinions about the COVID. Learned physicians, boot blacks, specialists shabu dealers…all use the cell phone to contribute to the confusion of what they think COVID is and how to overcome it.
And the volume of COVID information is massive to span the globe several times over. Our mind has been flooded by over information. We do not know what and whom to believe.
And now, the rubble continues…for there are several vaccines approved for use and available in the market.
Again, each vaccine is closely analyzed thru our cell phones by TikTok players, ukay-ukay merchants, fish vendors…then stirred up by the media…and the opinions, from the ridiculous to the sublime, surprising makes sense to the public…because a majority of the poor illiterates refuse to take the vaccine.
And the people’s fears, borne out of text messages and blogs, are because of the side effects which have also been discussed exhaustively by balot and cigarette vendors.
Too, the front effects of impotency, rear effects of blood clots, right side effects of dizziness and bad breath, and the left side effect of uncontrollable urge to fart. I have not been tagged of its middle, upper and lower effects, which I presume are of equally dire consequences.
Another argument difficult to fathom is: You’ll die anyway, so, why take the vaccine?
All of the foregoing have poisoned the minds of our people and they refuse to take the vaccine…derailing the governmental thrust to thwart the pandemic and resuscitate our stagnant financial condition.
I am for the vaccine and support our city government’s drive towards pricking. But what to do in the light of those who refuse to be vaccinated?
Simple. Pass an Ordinance/Resolution whatever granting P1,000 to every person who gets vaccinated. Spread this to the barangay…and you will be overwhelmed by applicants. But of course, you have to pay them P1,000 for every prick.
P.S.: The private sector will contribute to the cost./PN
