EDITORIAL - No magic wand

At long last, what we have been waiting for is finally here. The vaccines against COVID-19, which were starting to feel like something that really didn’t exist, at least for Filipinos, have arrived here in the Philippines.

A total of 600,000 doses of CoronaVac, a vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech, arrived here last Sunday night as part of a donation by the Chinese government. Aside from that, another 100,000 doses are being set aside for our armed forces.

Vaccinations started yesterday morning, with Philippine General Hospital Director Gerardo Legaspi getting the first jab here in the country. The inoculations for Food and Drug Administration Director General Eric Domingo, testing czar Vince Dizon, and Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Benjamin Abalos Jr. also quickly followed.

Aside from the PGH, the Lung Center of the Philippines, the Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center and Sanitarium, the Veterans Memorial Medical Center, the Philippine National Police General Hospital, and the Victoriano Luna Medical Center are also set to be giving jabs to health workers.

More vaccines are expected to arrive here in the coming months from different manufacturers.

While those of us who have been looking forward to getting our jabs may now heave a sigh of relief, we should still be on our toes for two reasons.

First, remember that the Sinovac vaccine only has an effectivity rate of 50%, very much lower than the rate of vaccines from other brands. In fact this is something that many people still have issues with.

If you happen to be one of the lucky few who got the vaccine, you still have to be careful. Just because you have been vaccinated doesn’t mean you can no longer be infected.

Second, vaccinating the majority of Filipinos so we can achieve herd immunity against the coronavirus will take some time. If the government wants to vaccinate at least 70 million of the 110 million Filipinos, many of whom aren’t exactly willing to take the jab, it won’t be easy or quick.

What does this mean? Even with the vaccines here and even with people getting their jabs in, we still shouldn’t let our guard down or stop practicing quarantine protocols.

Those face masks and face shields should still be in place. We should still keep a safe distance from each other, and avoid going out of the house when it’s really not needed.

Indeed, the vaccines are here. But they aren’t a magic wand that will quickly fix our problems.