HOTSPOT

I could still remember it clearly.

We were terrified by the pandemic, and forcibly held inside our homes by the world’s toughest and longest-running lockdowns. People we know were dying, even doctors and nurses. Both information and disinformation were running rampant online and offline.

Public outrage was exploding because of high officials’ violations of pandemic rules and acts of brutality, while people were made to face and endure unnecessary problems just to survive. It also did not help that the president at the time was “extra close” to the country where the virus came from.
But despite all the circumstances that would have national mass vaccination (two doses!) and herd immunity impossible to achieve, we actually did it. Despite the perceived stupidity, lack of discipline and low understanding of science, and other most awful misconceptions about ourselves, we did it.
We defied and defeated the anti-vaxxers who were getting and sharing notes from their ilk in the States, passing them on through Viber and Facebook Messenger. We pushed back against the use of Ivermectin. Instead, through various means and with a lot of patience and creativity, we raised our individual and collective awareness about viruses, vaccines, and vaccination.

Of course, it was not easy. It was as difficult as understanding a pandemic. But seeing Filipino nurses worldwide giving the first vaccine shots, and seeing our doctors - especially public sector doctors - doing their best in explaining the role of vaccines, certainly helped.

The young ones and once young talked about it, and helped one another understand the need for it. People understood and accepted why frontliners, seniors, and people with co-morbidities had to be prioritized. Families stepped up to send their seniors to vaccination centers. Health professionals whose overseas careers were suspended because of the pandemic, and whose education and domestic careers were in a standstill, joined the national vaccination effort.

We soon saw creativity from local governments, after a period of incompetence and the effects of high demand amid low supply. Vaccines reached bedridden people, and inventive promotions attracted entire families to get jabbed.

Hesitancy because of adverse effects such as fever and flu were explained away and addressed by leaves, paid and unpaid. The important thing was to promote, encourage, and accomplish two rounds of vaccination.

It also no longer mattered that Sinovac was from China. What mattered was that it could prevent severe infections and deaths. What mattered was that the vaccine also got approved by the World Health Organization, and that a vaccine mattered more than none at all.

We did it despite everything, in an archipelago as big as ours, a population of more than 100 million, and a health care system that could barely reach beyond municipal and city centers.

Exactly how we did it from the level of families, friendships, classmates, officemates, workmates, neighbors, and organizations is a matter that ought to be studied. How did we do it? What did we do to win over people for vaccination amid the sheer terror over the virus, the unchecked spread of disinformation from fake cures and hesitancy, and mistrust of government?

The answers to these questions may inform us more about ourselves and light the path forward for confronting other problems we deem too difficult or even impossible to solve.

I’m remembering this episode in our recent pandemic history, not only because it has been five years this March 2025 since the lockdowns started in March 2020. Although I do hope that the government would finally hold a fitting national memorial for everyone we lost.

I’m remembering this historic time because it could (and should!) set off an effort to give a second look at how we perceive the problem of fake news and disinformation that many say is most pervasive nowadays. Is it really a media problem, that should be confronted mainly by the journalists and media? Or is it a problem coming out of traditional politics? Are the vloggers and content producers out to topple mainstream media as source of news and information, or are they merely serving a political purpose or acting under a political direction?

I have no answers for now. What I know for certain is that we have what it takes to get to the bottom of the problem, and that we should be able, as before, to talk among ourselves, raise the right questions, find the correct answers together with our families and friendships about what’s of common importance to us.

We’ve done it before, and we can do it again.