How I overcame my fear of the Covid-19 vaccine

Equal immunity: With Western-produced vaccines snapped up by the richer countries first, the vaccine production of China and Russia are critical for marginal countries like the Philippines. — AP

THE biggest mobilisational effort that needs to be mounted by Filipinos that will affect their lives over the next decade is the effort to get 75 million adults vaccinated against Covid-19. This is equivalent to all the presidential candidates during the 2016 presidential election joining hands and going out like crazy to campaign for people to get vaccinated. Every qualified adult knows that it is important to register and vote, even if they do not do so. As for Covid-19,40% of Filipinos will hesitate or refuse to be vaccinated.

I have openly voiced my own vaccine hesitancy to my friends on social media. But I have changed my mind. My hesitancy melted after viewing a single video of Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, OP, a Dominican priest with a PhD in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, talking to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. I realised that my vaccine hesitancy had been coloured by my political journey over the past several years.