Respect one’s decision on vaccination
Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic was declared in the country in 2020, the fear of virus spread has become a nightmare to everyone and reports of daily deaths brought more fear to the public.
Discrimination then started everywhere, especially for people who contracted the virus infection until such time that discrimination escalated and included non-vaccinated individuals, who are deprived of some social privileges.
Section 2 of Republic Act 11525, or the Covid-19 Vaccination Program Act, states the law recognizes that Covid-19 vaccine is experimental and cannot be mandated on any individual because of its experimental character.
Sec. 8 and 12 of the same law state that vaccination or vaccine card is not a mandatory requirement for educational, employment, and government transactions.
The Department of Health, Department of Labor and Employment, and Commission on Human Rights also reiterated and reminded all concerned agencies that vaccination is not compulsory and the State should ensure that vaccination is voluntary.
Those who refused to be vaccinated must not be discriminated upon or penalized under the law.
Likewise, our fundamental human rights give us the right over our body. This means every individual has the right to be vaccinated or not.
Let us respect the decision made by every individual instead of discriminating them while all of us continue to suffer from this prolonged pandemic. — AUGUSTINA B. CAYAT, Benguet