By Engr. Edgar Mana-ay
In the February 22 headline of Daily Guardian, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Trenas said he was mulling to issue an executive order (EO) mandating the “no vaccination, no work” policy.
In other words, without a vaccination certificate, whether one is from the province or from the city, he or she cannot work unless a vaccination certificate is presented. This came about after a survey in the city showed that only 29% are willing to be vaccinated while 71% says no. In a nationwide survey, less than half of Filipinos are willing to get the vaccine. A poll in the US released last week showed 24% of Americans likely will never get the covid-19 vaccine if they can avoid it.
This writer cannot really fathom this anti-vaccine attitude of Filipinos when even as a child we were used to vaccination such as anti-polio/measles and lately the controversial anti-dengue vaccine or Dengvaxia. We are in a pandemic situation as Covid-19 continues to ravage the entire world with deaths, at the latest count, at 2.46 million – 500,000 in the US and 12,000 in the Philippines!
Our government can even hardly purchase the vaccine for us so that at least 60% of the populace gets a shot to achieve herd immunity for our economy to recover and return us to a pre COVID normal life.
By the way herd immunity means that when 60% threshold proportion of a population is immune to a certain pathogen, this protects even non-immune individuals against the infection by limiting the spread. I quote hereunder an opinion of Jewish Rabbi Yosie Levine, a doctorate in Early Modern Jewish History and the seventh Rabbi of the Jewish Center in Manhattan, New York as published in the Jerusalem Telegraph Agency (JTA) last February 18:
“One hopes that as people have more information and know others who have been vaccinated without ill effects, they will change their minds. Education and encouragement are the most reliable tools we have in our increasingly libertarian democracy – our government will barely asks us to wear masks, let alone requires us to subject ourselves to a jab in the arm. In the absence of a government mandate, we should do well to CONSIDER OUR MORAL OBLIGATIONS.
The Torah says that we take an active role in the rescue of those in danger. “Lo taamod al dam re’ekhah” (Leviticus 19:16). Do not stand by the blood of your fellow – means that should a passerby spot someone in trouble, they are obligated to try and help them. Passitivity in the face of danger is not an option. Intervening will always entail some degree of risks. But that doesn’t lessen the obligation to act. Many countries in Europe and Latin America insist on a similar duty to rescue. In Quebec’s Chamber of Human Rights and Freedom, the obligation is explicit: “Every human being whose life is in peril has a right to assistance. Every person must come to the aid of anyone whose life is in peril, either personally or calling for aid, by giving him the necessary and immediate physical assistance . . . . . .”
In the US, however, there generally is no such duty. Even if a State has a Good Samaritan Law, the edict typically serves as an incentive rather than an obligation. By protecting a bystander who intervene from potential legal action, the law encourages intervention in cases where a person’s life maybe in danger. But the failure to intervene is by no means criminal. We Americans have been conditioned to think of our own liberties and well-being. We have a patient’s bill of rights at the doctor’s office and a passenger’s bill of right to take us there. Ours is a world of entitlements rather than a world of duty. The notion of an obligation proactively comes to the aid of our fellow citizens sounds like a foreign concept.
Whether and to what extent individuals might refuse treatments that preserve or protect their own wellness might be open to some debate. And while the law might not require intervention, there is simply no moral justification for neglecting the affirmative obligation each of us has to pro-actively help others when they face mortal danger. The threat of COVID-19 is real, it’s imminent and millions of people are standing directly in harm’s way. When lives are on the line, the Torah’s ethics do not countenance nonfeasance. REFUSING TO RECEIVE THE VACCINE IS TANTAMOUNT TO STANDING IDLY BY WHILE ANOTHER PERSON IS BEING ASSAULTED. IF ACHIEVING HERD IMMUNITY WILL SAVE LIVES – AND THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT IT WILL – THEN EACH OF US HAS A RESPONSIBILITY TO HELP OUR NATION ACHIEVE THAT GOAL. To shirk that responsibility is to fall woefully short of what the Torah (Bible) expects of us.
What of the unknowns? What of the risks? None of us can lay claim to prophecy. But we can lay claim to scientific data. Among the vaccines now being distributed in the US, tens of millions doses have been administered. The number of adverse reactions is so infinitesimally small that speaking of risk with respect to the vaccine is a misnomer. On question of science, we rely on our medical experts – and those experts have spoken with one voice. Our stand won’t compel us to get the vaccine. But our conscience should. Living in a civilized society isn’t a free lunch. Once in a while moral obligations come. We walk around with expectation that when we are in trouble, someone would come to our aid. With trouble looming for others, let’s hold our end of the bargain and come to theirs.”
Hopefully the above opinion of Rabbi Levine will clear the cobwebs of doubts in our minds and provide the enthusiasm to be vaccinated. In times of war all able-bodied citizens is required by the state to answer the call to serve in the battle field. We are in an almost similar situation with the Covid-19 pandemic. We just cannot be fence sitters in this battle. Even Jesus in the New Testament provided the Parable of the Good Samaritan to show that we cannot stand idly while our nation is being ravaged by the pandemic. Submitting to vaccination helps achieve herd immunity to save our country. I fully support the plan of Mayor Jerry Trenas to impose a “no vaccination, no work” policy.
