March 28, 2024

GETTING READY FOR COVID VACCINATION IN CAR

As the country expects the arrival of the anti-Covid-19 vaccines this month, local government units must have been ready with their vaccination plans; and the public should cooperate with the government’s response to this global health emergency.
This early, we want to know how ready the LGUs in the Cordillera are and how they will roll out their respective vaccination plans because of the several changes in the way we live under the new normal.
First, mass gatherings are forbidden so this means only a minimal number of people will be allowed in places identified as inoculation sites. It means too that local health facilities, especially those in the urban areas, will be overwhelmed if no contingency plans are put in place. How LGUs with large number of vaccinees avoid the expected overcrowding in identified vaccination sites should have been addressed in their respective plans already.
Aside from vaccination sites, the availability of storage equipment for the vaccines should have been ensured by now.
Except for Baguio City, which has already secured the equipment that meet the cold storage requirement of some vaccines, we have yet to learn how other LGUs in the region will store the vaccines when the national government downloads the doses to them.
By some indications, several municipalities in the region have no vaccination plans yet, as many of these LGUs remain dependent on the plans of their respective provincial LGUs.
We understand that not all Cordillera LGUs are financially capable to secure doses for their constituents as Baguio did when it signed a deal with British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, but the least we expect from other LGUs is for them to have their storage facilities ready.
The Covid-19 vaccination is also different from the mass inoculations that are being implemented because governments around the globe are rolling out a novel vaccine. Aside from securing vaccines for their constituents, LGUs must also work hard in combating misinformation against the Covid-19 vaccine.
LGUs must recognize the fact that there are people who doubt science and are out to discredit the efficacy of the vaccine that is being deployed under “emergency use.” We want them to devise ways to convince the public or elevate their trust in the vaccines, which so far have been proven efficient by the clinical trials conducted before these were cleared for mass use.
We are concerned on how the LGUs will deal with the identified priority vaccinees who refuse to be inoculated and how they will locate their residents who may not be included in the priority sector but are willing to be vaccinated.
We also want the public to help the government in its efforts to put an end to this pandemic that has been ruling us over more nearly a year already. Doubting the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccines and spreading misinformation about their adverse effects is irresponsible; inhumane even.
Since the declaration of the pandemic by the World Health Organization last year, we have been wanting for a cure to the virus that causes the infection that has claimed lives and crashed economies around the globe.
Now that the vaccine is being rolled out, we must have faith in its ability to save and preserve the human race.