It is depressing that about 2,300 unvaccinated senior citizens have died of Covid-19. This data from the Department of Health Central Visayas (DOH 7) is for the period from May 2021 to February this year. This only highlighted the fact that senior citizens are the most vulnerable against Covid-19, and the DOH and the local government units (LGUs) somehow failed in its objective to vaccinate those susceptible to the disease.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC), revealed this sad data on Monday, March 7, 2022. Whatever was the intention of Loreche or the DOH in giving emphasis on the unvaccinated senior citizens who succumbed to the virus, I only wish that the message gets through to everyone because medical science has proven that vaccination is the key to minimizing death from Covid-19.
Loreche said ages 61 to 70 years old accounted for the highest number of unvaccinated deaths that numbered to 1,006 in all the age groups in the provinces of Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental and Siquijor. In the age group 71 to 80 years old, 830 died of the virus, while 493 died in the 81 years old age group.
Of the 4,883 people who died of Covid-19 in a span of 10 months in Central Visayas, 2,728 were senior citizens and 85 percent, or 2,329 of these senior citizens who died were not vaccinated against the virus. Of the 4,883 deaths, only 15 percent or 732 individuals from all age groups were vaccinated against the coronavirus, while 4,151 individuals, or 85 percent were not vaccinated, Loreche said. She asked, “So, why take the risk?
So, where did the government fail in vaccinating not only the senior citizens, but all the age groups to attain herd immunity? More saddening is the news about vaccines that have expired. Yet, there are still a lot of people who have not been vaccinated even after the local chief executives have publicly shown their vaccination as models.
Is the limited number of the vaccinated population in Central Visayas the reason that we are still under Alert Level 2? Why is the National Capital Region (NCR) already in Alert Level 1 when in the past months it had the highest number of Covid-19 infections than Region 7? To think that Mandaue City, according to a recent report, has already reached the cap for the highest number of the vaccinated individuals in all age groups.
Is the person’s right not to be vaccinated, which the governor supports, paramount over the health of the majority? I don’t think so. Section 15 of Article II of our Constitution provides, “The State shall protect and promote the right to health of the people and instill health consciousness among them.” Are we to understand that the Duterte administration has been soft in implementing this provision?
While there is no law that mandates the vaccination against Covid-19, which is still a pandemic up to this day, the government should have exerted more efforts in its vaccination program and Congress should have provided in the Bayanihan Acts 1 and 2 the mandatory vaccination for all those qualified for the vaccine. The efforts of some LGUs to give rewards or prizes to those who underwent vaccination failed to motivate the hard-asses.
The latest data from the DOH 7 clearly showed that the highest number of deaths caused by the Covid-19 were the unvaccinated. If all of the people only cooperated in vaccination efforts of the government, I think we would already have reached the cap for the herd immunity status and we would have been in the “new normal” now.