Covid Christmas ‘21 to Elections ‘22: Whimpering Hope

COVID-19 Vaccine: Give the Shot a Shot

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“In science credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not the man to whom the idea first occurs.” - Francis Galton

This Can’t Happen but It Does


COVID19 started as a whisper in the 2019 Christmas air; but nothing was confirmed and we couldn’t mentally accommodate something so bad turning up in the midst of our festivity. When reports had it that two Chinese citizens landed on Philippine soil bringing with them a deadly virus, all we could do was to grapple with all sorts of information and make all kinds of speculation. Meanwhile the leaders of the world did seem to be doing their exercise in the playground of power in trying to address the crashing of a health crisis on all of us. With little factual information at hand we, in ignorance, still thought it wasn’t going to be so grave and acted normal in the hustle and bustle of daily life.


Vaccination: Do or Die and Let Die


At once, 500 thousand people died all over the world during the first 6 months of the outbreak, (Frontiers) with the Philippines reaching 19,946 deaths from 03 Jan 2020 to 23 May 2021 (WHO Philippines). The most painful part of the death toll lies in the loss of crucial personalities in the health care system who could have helped greatly in our battle to curb the the epidemic – heads and key officials in health care centers and institutions of epidemiology, immunology, and other vital areas of disease control and eradication. These, while scientists take the speediest effort to formulate an antidote in the form of a vaccine that can be widely used around the globe.


Now we have them! And the fear of having ill-effects from being vaccinated drowns the fear for the disease itself.


If only to calm us down and think objectively about taking the vaccine and study what could be its harmful side-effects, the literature COVID Research: A Year of Scientific Milestones, cite observable benefits of and facts on vaccines, including the following:


  • Reduced symptoms and serious illness.
  • Full vaccination reduces risk of infection by 90%.
  • Vaccines trigger immune responses.
  • People vaccinated for at least 21 days could still test positive but viral transmission from them to other household members was 40%-50% lower than transmission in households in which the first person to test positive had not been vaccinated.
  • Vaccinated adults protect unvaccinated kids.
  • Older people are at higher risk of getting infected twice.
  • Mutations are linked to increased transmissibility and immune evasion.
  • Transmission is more likely in low-income areas where people move more when they were supposed to stay at home due to jobs outside their abode, jobs that cannot be performed online, as is true for those in the underground economy.
  • In Chile, 29 April, (G.E. Mena et al. Science https://doi.org/f9b4; 2021) death rates were found higher in low income areas especially under age 80 than in high income areas likely due to inadequate testing, and this group was likely to experience deaths outside health care facilities due to insufficient hospital beds.

Life is a risk. Learn to weigh your risks, if not for yourself, for others.

Ye Men of Little Faith, We Owe our Lives to Vaccines!


There is evidence to show that the Chinese started the use of smallpox inoculation 1000 CE (www.historyofvaccines.org) before the first successful smallpox vaccine was developed as introduced in 1796 by Edward Jenner, an English physician and scientist.


Two hundred twenty five years (225) years of global vaccination and all of us entertain the initial delusion of suffering and death from having the very armor to defy them. Let us then appreciate how vaccines have been developed to save human lives through time:


  • To date, smallpox is the only human disease to have been eradicated by vaccination. The disease is estimated to have killed up to 300 million people in the 20th century.
  • Through vaccination, wild poliovirus has been declared eradicated in 2019. During the peak of polio, it killed half a million people every year worldwide in the 1940s and 50s.
  • In 1971, the vaccine MMR was developed by Dr. Maurice Hilleman to fight against mumps, measles, and rubella. Measles claim 20 million lives a year, primarily in developing areas of Africa and Asia.
  • In the 1980s, vaccines against Hepatitis B and Haemophilus Influenza type B were developed and recommended for public use. Hepatitis B kills 884,000 every year.
  • The list goes on to include vaccines against flu and pneumonia. Pneumonia accounts for 15% of all deaths among children under 5 years old. (WHO)

Save Us; Give the Shot a Shot!


As of 16 May 2021, , 2,778,677 vaccine doses have been administered in the Philippines, as new cases average 6,000 infections daily, giving a total of 1.18 million cases recorded, while having 1.1 million recoveries.


The Covid19 vaccine develops Individual immunity to the disease and this condition is essential to attaining herd immunity, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely, which will, in all probability, result to community protection.


What are you waiting for, next Christmas? It will surely come but could come without you. Decide and act now.

Helpful Resources about the COVID-19 Vaccine in the Philippines:


Photo by Thirdman from Pexels.