By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

 

SOMETIMES, without warning, it grips me, the unpleasant feeling caused by a situation of uncertainty and threat. Although I try to think of pleasant things to distract my mind from it, it stays there, in the pit of my stomach, making my heart palpitate.

All of us have experienced fear. It could be intense as to make you run away, or to approach it without blinking. In others, it pushes them to attack, a measure against something possible, to deter an anticipated or imagined outcome from happening.

Even those from whom you would not have expected to strike at anything, it happens, an urgent and quick response, aimed at self-preservation. I have observed this from otherwise sane individuals, known for their analytical behavior and practice of thorough research. There seems to be an abandonment of decent behaviors and reasonable analytical effort when fear sets in. For example, a comment, or a personal reflection may be innocently expressed:

“Everything is so uncertain. The virus is largely unknown, the vaccines are unknown. The vaccinated can spread the virus just as the unvaccinated. So, banning the unvaccinated from certain places is discriminatory, thus should be declared illegal.”

This statement does not intend to harm, but is has triggered various responses, some of them hateful:

“It’s really a form of anti-vaxx propaganda that, by promoting the usual BS of individual choice condemns us to collective disaster. I’m truly disappointed to see this being pushed by people whose views I otherwise respect.”

 “Idiocy. I also know otherwise smart people who won’t get vaccinated. I now ask anyone I’m interacting with if they are vaccinated. With the Delta variant raging I am furious at people who mistake their twisted idea of freedom – when it is a tantrum of privilege – as a healthy choice. Tanga.”

 “Correct. Your personal freedom ends when you are a threat to my health.”

 “Only if they stay in a cage and don’t interact with society.”

I intentionally did not include the authors of these comments because I meant to illustrate only the fear, and not to be dragged into further arguments that may exacerbate the unwarranted ostracism that is slowly seeping in for the unvaccinated. Despite the fact that recent developments have established that both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated can be infected and can transmit the virus, the public, more prone to believing sources with whose “fears” they identify with, continue to ignore these findings, and spread the fear to others.

This situation is worsened by a medical practitioner with a large social media following, who omits to report on these findings with the same enthusiasm he accords in promoting a specific brand of vaccine, discrediting some of the vaccines already administered to the public.

Already, 72.5 billion has been spent for the vaccines. So far, less than 10 percent had been inoculated. The Philippines has a population of 111 million and the government cannot hope to inoculate the whole population. So why propose an unconstitutional legislation to restrict the movement of the unvaccinated? Shouldn’t we allocate the same amount to holistic measures that adequately equip people to withstand the onslaught of the virus by strengthening the immune system? Fear stamps out reason, and with the greed of the profiteers, renders a nation comatose.

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