By Felipe V. Celino
ROXAS CITY, Capiz — The chair of the Sanggunian Panlungsod’s (SP) Health Committee lamented the low turnout of COVID-19 vaccination in Roxas City.
Councilor Cesar Yap said of the 3,025 who agreed to be vaccinated during the preliminary survey, only 882 were inoculated on May 6, 2021.
In his privilege speech on Tuesday, Yap lamented that people are afraid of the vaccines even if their children were inoculated against measles, polio, mumps, diphtheria, pertussis, and other vaccine-preventable diseases.
He called the situation “the cruelest form of cowardice and child injustice.”
Yap suggested to the Roxas City Covid Task Force to shift their approach from “disease-centered” to “people- centered.”
“Frightening them of COVID’s deadliness won’t work. The more we threat them or penalize them for not wearing face mask and face shield, the more we alienate them. People have to air their fears, their confusions about vaccination in order to erase their hesitancy,” he said.
Yap suggested a house-to-house or face-to-face approach through symposia.
He cited their move with the Sanggunian Kabataan (SK) of Lawaan where acceptance of the vaccine increased to 80 percent after talking to the residents.
“The numbers don’t lie, but numbers are only numbers if we won’t analyze and ‘strategize’. We need social mobilization action: we could even request help from the church, the clergy, and other influencers. Doctors are most needed for convincing conversion. Time runs out: early vaccination could even prevent variants formation—how could variants form when Covid is absent because people are already protected”, he stressed.
“Vaccination is our last hope towards normalcy thru herd immunity!” Yap said.
