Suffering the consequences

In a recent editorial we wrote about how some parents are still hesitant to have their children vaccinated. Now it would seem that we are seeing the consequences of this hesitancy after the increase of diseases like pertussis or whooping cough, a highly-infectious disease that is spread by droplets from the mouth of those who are infected.

In fact just a few days ago, Quezon City declared an outbreak of whooping cough after 23 cases were recorded by the city government since January, including four fatalities. Other areas in the country have reported similar outbreaks as well.

Health experts said the rise in diseases that would have otherwise been preventable via immunization was because the distribution of vaccines was disrupted during the worst of the COVID-19 lockdowns. But that’s just one side of the coin; it would seem some parents are still hesitant to have their children vaccinated.

This has led to exasperation among health experts.

“I know the hesitancy is still there and some are afraid of the vaccine because of the previous experience. But that should not be the reason because we are now experiencing this outbreak and it’s not farfetched we will also be experiencing outbreak related... because of the low vaccine coverage,” said infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante.

Solante refers to the Dengvaxia debacle which traumatized some parents. Again, we say that these fears are unfounded because many first-world countries are using Dengvaxia until today.

“But it wasn’t just that,” naysayers may say, “we also took the vaccine for COVID-19 and fell very sick.”

Again, any vaccine is a weaker version of a virus. We should expect vaccines to take some of us down, but definitely not out.

Regrets always come last. Many of those gasping for breath as they lay dying of COVID-19 wish they had taken the vaccine on time. Let this not be said for those now suffering from whooping cough.