6 September 2021, Philippines – The Concerned Citizens and Doctors of the Philippines opposed the recommendation of a group of restaurateurs to allow only vaccinated individuals to dine in restaurants, calling the plan unscientific, discriminatory, and segregationist.
The Restaurant Owners of the Philippines (Resto PH) recently asked the government to allow more mobility for the vaccinated, including allowing them to dine in at establishments regardless of the prevailing quarantine level.
“Any proposal advocating that the government should treat vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals differently goes against the constitutionally-protected right of Filipino citizens to equal opportunity and protection under the law regardless of race, ethnic origin, and personal and religious beliefs,” said Homer Lim, MD, President of CDC Ph.
Dr. Lim said that segregation is both not only discriminatory but also unscientific, especially because current medical data shows that vaccinated individuals can still spread COVID-19 and carry viral loads equivalent to unvaccinated individuals.
The Guardian, a reputable British newspaper, recently reported a study by Oxford researchers which found that fully vaccinated adults can harbor virus levels as high as unvaccinated people if infected with the Delta variant.
The study compared results from about 2.6 million nose and throat swabs from more than 384,500 adults collected between December 2020 and mid-May 2021, against results from more than 811,600 test results from 358,983 adults between mid-May and August 2021, when the Delta variant became dominant in the United Kingdom.
The complete article is freely available here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/19/jabbed-adults-infected-with-delta-can-match-virus-levels-of-unvaccinated
“We cannot allow segregation policies to be used as a cudgel to beat down every Filipinos’ freedom of choice, specifically the right to make an informed decision on whether or not to receive COVID-19 vaccines,” Dr. Lim said.
Dr. Lim stressed that freedom of choice and informed decision-making are of utmost importance because current COVID-19 vaccines were approved only under an emergency use authorization without long-term clinical trials on side effects and adverse reactions.
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