Where does this reluctance come from?

It would seem that many parents are still reluctant to have their children vaccinated, based on a Cebu City Health Department report about how many vaccinations they have yet to give out.

After all the advances that have been made in medicine throughout the decades, especially when it comes to inoculating people from certain diseases, we are wondering where this reluctance comes from.

Perhaps it was not explained to some parents what a vaccine really is. A vaccine is essentially a weaker version of the virus it seeks to combat. A vaccine has been carefully calibrated to attack the human body not to render it totally helpless but only in such a way that it produces enough natural defenses to be able to fend off future attacks of that same virus at full strength.

This is why it is absolutely normal to feel under the weather or even get sick after receiving a vaccine. Not even everyone who gets vaccinated for something is guaranteed to get sick. But considering the protection you receive --some come with a lifetime guarantee-- that would seem a small price to pay indeed.

Perhaps we can also blame the Dengvaxia debacle of several years ago for this reluctance. After the virus was blamed for the death of several children, some parents didn’t just label Dengvaxia dangerous; they considered all vaccines as unreliable as well and refused to let their children have them.

But guess what? The US, the EU, Singapore, Latin American countries, and other Asian countries use Dengvaxia. So these fears are really unfounded.

It was this same reluctance in vaccination that led to the rise of polio in early 2020. Polio, supposedly a disease that has been eradicated in the Philippines, resurfaced among children whose parents didn’t have them vaccinated for the disease.

Vaccination prevents illness. Many of the diseases that were a normal cause of death in the old days --we are talking about diphtheria, influenza, Hepatitis B, whooping cough, and tetanus-- among others are now preventable. Especially among children.

And all it takes is a little prick to the shoulder, perhaps a little fever, then they are set for life.