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Down with doubt: Taking curiosity to a higher level in viewing vaccines



When COVID-19 vaccines arrived in our country, many have been in doubt with it, fearing that it would cause more detriments to health than benefits. Today, curiosity plays a big role, and it can take us to a deeper purpose.


Some Filipinos, especially in social media, remain in doubt with the vaccines’ effectiveness in combating COVID-19, saying that it has caused harm to people according to accounts from their relatives and complete strangers. Evidently, the widespread fear seemed to be due to the inability of people to dig deeper in finding sufficient information to prove their stances.


Adam Smith, more popularly known as Doc Adam, a certified doctor and content creator, took a look at some of the netizens’ public comments regarding the vaccine. Amanda Zapata said that she fears that the vaccines will, in the long run, cause serious health effects like what happened in the Dengvaxia vaccine before. Smith said that while serious side effects from the vaccine may occur, they happen very rarely, or by the numbers, once in a million.


“Ang karaniwang side effects ng vaccine ay lagnat, masakit ang braso, at sipon, and they happen in one or two days and not long term. If there are serious side effects of the vaccines, makikita ito ng authority,” Smith said.


Maridy Campos, likewise, is afraid that the vaccine would trigger serious illnesses. She shared that five days after one of her relatives who took the vaccine went under operation in the gallbladder, has a weakened liver, and got diagnosed with mild pneumonia. Smith said that if all of these were true, we could have already seen it in the news.


“Almost 1 million people have already been vaccinated, kung mangyayari na magkaroon ang tao ng gallstones pagkatapos nila magpabakuna, then this would be visible, people would see it,” the doctor said.


Meanwhile, an Alma Ventura said that she would just leave it all to God and live everything by faith. While there is nothing wrong with it, Smith emphasized the potentials of science and technology in aiding us in our lives, and the importance of action in using these potentials for our own benefit.


“So yes, we can have faith in God, and that’s perfectly fine. But if we have technology that can do things to help us, then para sa akin, we should use that technology or science para tumulong sa buhay natin,” Smith said.


There is nothing wrong with being curious. It saves us from harms that may threaten our well-being. However, remaining stagnant with it somehow becomes the problem. Use that curiosity to look for information that can enrich our knowledge and awareness. COVID-19 vaccines are there to help, and information about them that came from random accounts will not be as reliable as what your curiosity can do.



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