It’s a day of reckoning for those individuals who have refused the vaccines against COVID-19. Science has been telling the world that the pandemic will not easily go away if a significant number of the population remains unvaccinated.
Those who ignore the vaccines or refuse to get inoculated serve as perfect hosts to the COVID-19 virus. They have minimal protection from COVID-19, and as the virus settles within their body, the infected ones—or the COVID-19 hosts—become the spreader and the instrument of the pandemic.
Unvaccinated individuals deserve to lose some of their freedoms in these trying times, like travel and dining in public places. For rejecting the vaccine on conspiracy theories and faulty reasonings that defy science, anti-vaxxers should keep away from malls and restaurants and not be given a chance to spread the virus. This will be their modest contribution to the fight against the pandemic.
Metro Manila mayors were right in proposing strict measures on unvaccinated people amid the jump in the number of COVID-19 cases in recent days. Health statistics prove that the majority of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines and across the world involve those who have remained unvaccinated.
Unvaccinated residents, under tighter restrictions, must stay at home unless buying essentials or exercising. The Omicron variant of the virus has become more virulent than the Delta strain and unvaccinated people are the ones who have greater risks of getting the infection.
Around 70 percent of residents in Metro Manila are fully jabbed but government data show less than half of the national population is fully vaccinated. The Health Department has already warned that Omicron is eight times more transmissible than Delta, and that the peak will occur at the end of January.
Containing the virus’ spread to the minimum is also essential to fully reopening the economy. The unvaccinated must realize the implications of an economy that is unable to reopen due to rising daily cases of COVID-19. It means business closures for the small and medium enterprises, reduced job opportunities and an increase in the poverty incidence.