‘… if this government insists that Filipinos should not be choosy and should take Sinovac more than other (Western) brands, well, why not make Davao City the model Sinovac city and every Dabawenyo a walking proof of its efficacy?’
HAVE you noticed that what was once NCR+4 has become NCR+8? This was after a number of urban areas in the Visayas and Mindanao were added to the original NCR+ grouping — but not for purposes of quarantine classifications; rather the new enlarged grouping of NCR+8 is meant to refer to highly urban areas in the Philippines that will be flooded with vaccines, in an attempt to slow down the rate of infections in the country.
The +8 are the provinces of Bulacan, Laguna, Rizal, Cavite, Batangas, Pampanga and the highly urbanized areas of Metro Cebu and Metro Davao. (Not the reason why our sun has eight rays, mind you.)
The addition of Metro Cebu (population 800k), I suspect, is a happy consequence of the addition of Metro Davao (population 1.8M) to the areas where vaccines will be concentrated. It is also an acknowledgment that outside of Metro Manila and nearby provinces, Metro Davao and Metro Cebu are the key growth areas and population centers for Mindanao and the Visayas; consequently they must be included in any anti-COVID strategy that seeks to contain the virus, especially in the most densely populated areas of the country.
Which actually gives Davao City, Mayor Sara, and even President Duterte an opportunity to further their standing as leaders of and models for the country.
I worry, however, that another opportunity will go to waste.
I refer to what should be a massive campaign to vaccinate every qualified citizen of Davao City, making the city the first fully vaccinated LGU in the country. And while I am aware that such a campaign could raise howls of protest and charges of favoritism that could be damaging politically, my suggestion has a caveat: that Sinovac, and only Sinovac, would be the vaccine for every single Dabawenyo.
Why Sinovac? Because it seems to be the vaccine of choice of President Duterte — at least as far as he is not concerned (he preferred Sinopharm, remember?). And if this government insists that Filipinos should not be choosy and should take Sinovac more than other (Western) brands, well, why not make Davao City the model Sinovac city and every Dabawenyo a walking proof of its efficacy?
I have no doubt that Davao City loves the President, adores him even. So why shouldn’t every Dabawenyo demonstrate that love by rolling up their sleeves and getting jabbed with Sinovac? Leave the Pfizers and Modernas and AstraZenecas of this world to the “infidels” from Metro Manila as you show the country how following the leader — one of your own — is supposed to be done.
No Dabawenyo who swears by PRRD should be jabbed with anything other than Sinovac. Sumunod na lang tayo, di ba?
There’s also a greater benefit for mankind if Dabawenyos get jabbed with only Sinovac.
Davao City will be providing the world — and the world of Chinese vaccine makers — important feedback on the efficacy of the vaccine. Since the arms of every Dabawenyo will not be filled with impurities from other brands, the data that can be collected from Davao can be used by the makers of Sinovac to finally obtain the emergency use thumbs up from the World Health Organization that the other Western brands and Sinopharn have obtained.
But that’s not all.
The greatest benefit for making Davao City the Sinovac capital for the Philippines is this: it will serve as the most eloquent message to every Filipino — or at least to every DDS — that 1) vaccines are good for you; 2) every qualified Filipino should get vaccinated and 3) Sinovac is the vaccine of choice. As a result a lot of the vaccine hesitancy that exists even among some of the President’s most ardent supporters will dissipate — why, if he has his constituents in Davao City jabbed with Sinovac then it must be a good vaccine, yes? Never mind that PRRD himself chose Sinopharm, after announcing last year that he would make sure he will be the first to be publicly jabbed with a vaccine — a “promise” that went the way of the jetski. These two missteps of the President — going back on his “I will be the first” promise and then refusing to take Sinovac and opting instead for Sinopharm — surely did not escape the notice of his loving followers. They who now were given the justification for not wanting to be jabbed — or, if they were to be jabbed at all, for not wanting to be jabbed with Sinovac, the vaccine the President himself refused to be jabbed with.
So here now is a chance to set things right and to return to the principle of leadership by example: make Davao City the first fully vaccinated LGU using only Sinovac. And watch the world make a beeline to Davao City to behold the model city that it should be.
What say you, Dabawenyos?
