Prevention or cure?

Why the health experts and pharmaceutical companies focus on the discovery of the vaccine instead of finding a medicine against COVID-19? Which can boost the morale of the people during the pandemic times, prevention or the cure?

It has been a year since the world is in a pandemic. The situation is far from over, some expert says. The discovery of the vaccine in less than a year time is a good development but with an unexpected twist.

The vaccine has not slowed down nor stopped the virus from spreading. But instead, the virus has gone worst through mutation and variants in different regions of the world.

The pandemic that swift the world has continued to affect the world’s economy and peoples’ lives severely since World War II. Health and security status in many countries are still the main issue as medical experts in a quandary about the effective approach against the virus.

The vaccination roll-out program around the world has started last December 2020 but the outcome is not very promising as the new more deadly strains surfaced in Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia.

World health experts applied a decisive approach against the novel coronavirus. First, the adults got the vaccine before the children. Second, we used vaccines that won’t guarantee 100% immunity. Third, we got vaccines with authorized emergency use but with various side effects that kill the elderly allegedly. It is the main reason why only 9,000 out of 82,000 senior citizens have registered in Cebu City.

The result is public anxiety, fear, confusion, and paranoia instead of joy, hope, and public assurance. Looks like we started our battle against the virus with the less effective solution. However, some countries claim victory against the virus while others are still fighting for survival.

Recently some physicians claim the effectiveness of Ivermectin and Lianhua Qingwen, as treatment or preventive medicine against COVID-19. But the Food and Drug Administration caution there are procedures to be followed, including clinical trials, before the drug could be administered.

This means we have to wait for a while until the clinical trials will show favorable results before public consumption. So for now we don’t have much choice but to abide by the immunization process.

People should be more vigilant of using any drugs that claim curative effects against the virus because if you are a COVID-19 patient with a good immune system, you can survive.

As of the moment, there are 840,554 confirmed COVID cases in the country. While this current daily surge of cases is very alarming let us continue to observe strict health protocol at work and boost our immune system at home to protect ourselves from the virus.

Let’s take advantage of our best option at the moment, the free vaccine for prevention while patiently waiting for the medicine or cure on the way.

Renester P. Suralta