The main function of the COVID-19 vaccine serves to develop antibodies and an

immune response in order to lessen infection and transmission of this virus.

Scholars conceive that once a minimum of 60% [5] of the population achieved
immunity, either by vaccination or having been infected, we will reach herd
immunity for protecting individuals and other people around them, hopefully
ending the pandemic. The available vaccines can reduce severe symptoms, which
minimizes complications, morbidity and mortality, and alleviate the tremendous
needs of intensive care units to safeguard the healthcare system. Thus, getting
vaccinated has become a public health priority causing herd immunity to be a more
remote hope. Advocates consider herd immunity to be a common good and an
altruistic procedure [9], which justifies the exercise of mandatory injections. It is
not only a public health concern, but also a social issue associated with the
economic and societal burdens, socioeconomic disparities and health
inequalities [10] induced by this pandemic [11].

In Philippines, from 3 January 2020 to 6:06pm CET, 21 March 2023, there

have been 4,078,994 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 66,272 deaths, reported
to WHO. As of 1 March 2023, a total of 170,638,379 vaccine doses have been
administered.

He acknowledged that a law is needed to mandate Filipinos to receive the Covid-

19 vaccine shots, but reiterated that government can also use its police power to
compel citizens to get vaccinated against Covid-19. The exercise of POLICE
POWER IS VALID when the purpose and means employed in valid.

“Government can issue measures that would protect public health, public safety,
public order. It’s in the police state. So in some countries, mandatory na (already),”
he added. “Under the police power of the state, I can compel you.”

Proclamation No. 1253, which formally declared Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 as

“Bayanihan, Bakunahan” National Covid-19 Vaccination Days, excuses public and
private sector employees who want to get their Covid-19 vaccine jabs.

“Employees and workers of the government and the private sector, who will be
vaccinated during the period, shall not be considered absent from their work,
provided that they present proof of vaccination to their respective employers,
subject to rules that may be issued by the Department of Labor and Employment
(DOLE) and the Civil Service Commission (CSC),” the proclamation read. (PNA)
Natural Rights

Inherent Rights. These are the rights inhere t to man and given to him by God as
a human being e.g, the right to live, love and be happy.

We argue that individuals who have access to vaccines and for whom vaccination
is not medically contraindicated have a moral obligation to contribute to the
realisation of herd immunity by being vaccinated. 

I believe that morally everyone must take the vaccine. It is the moral choice
because it is about your life but also the lives of others."39The Pope and the CDF
would be in alignment if we understand "as a rule" in a prima facie sense, meaning
that, under ordinary circumstances, vaccination is not a moral obligation; however,
the current pandemic has arguably created a "state of exception" in which moral
rules, though not abrogated, may be applied in different ways.40 In this case,
another moral rule — the requirement to safeguard one's health and promote the
common good — overrides the prima facie rule against vaccination being a moral
obligation. Second, the term "voluntary" is inherently ambiguous as it could mean
either that one should not be coerced in any way to be vaccinated or that one
should not be held down and jabbed against their will. While mandates could be
construed as "coercive," they are not forcing anyone to be vaccinated against their
will.

I conclude that there is a moral obligation to be vaccinated based on

epidemiological evidence that vaccination — except for those with medical
contraindications41 — is the most effective means of fulfilling one's duty to
safeguard their own health and promote the common good, which inherently
respects the dignity of human persons, particularly those at higher risk of severe
illness or death — including by attenuating the virus' potential to mutate into more
infectious and deadlier forms.