Senator Nancy Binay on Tuesday, June 22 said the government should first “arrest” the problem of having sufficient coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine supply before moving to haul off to jail those who refuse to get vaccinated.
“We have a problem with supply. It’s not as if our people do not want to get inoculated,” Binay said in an interview over ANC’s Headstart.
Binay was reacting to President Duterte’s warning to vaccine skeptics when he said he would order the arrest of individuals who intentionally refuses to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The senator pointed out that in Manila alone, people are lining up early in the morning to get the jab, so they could make it before the cut-off time.
“I think vaccine hesitancy is not the problem, vaccine supply is the biggest problem. We need to address that,” she stressed.
Nevertheless, the lawmaker acknowledged there is still a prevailing vaccine hesitancy among the population.
“But for me, the urgent need right now is to have more supply of the vaccines,” she said.
She, however, said the government should explore the feasibility of making COVID-19 vaccination mandatory since the country’s health experts pointed out that a 70 percent inoculation rate is only needed to achieve herd immunity.
“So technically, there is a 30 percent of the population that cannot really be inoculated. But that is something the medical experts should answer,” Binay said.