On confidence

By definition, confidence is the feeling or belief that one can rely on something or someone. It speaks of firm trust in a person, an institution or a system. In life, we either build confidence in ourselves or confidence on certain things in which people can depend and rely in faith without much doubt or worry. When we place our savings in a bank, for example, we put complete trust in the services of our banking institutions, who in turn safeguard our life’s earnings. Keeping our money in the bank is a sign that the actions we have taken in this regard is the best or most effective.

The word confidence comes from the Latin word “fidere” which means to trust. In the midst of a pandemic, we turn in confidence to a number of institutions that have in its best interest to help the people overcome a crisis in the different aspects of their lives. I suppose the biggest confidence majority of the people would put their trust in would be our health care system – after all, this crisis has hit this sector the hardest and all over the world.

Day in and day out, the nation awaits for updates on vaccines. Both national and local governments have been diligent in raising vaccine confidence for COVID-19 in order to achieve herd immunity. The nation awaits, together with our leaders as well as the participation of the private sector, for more vaccines in the hopes of getting millions of Filipinos jabbed.

Our vaccines are coming in trickles but positive news on the arrival of more  is providing much awaited hope. While some people ask about vaccines almost to the point of insinuating that the procurement is either too slow or almost nonexistent, the fact still remains that government is continuously procuring and working on increased delivery of much needed vaccines.

On the other hand, vaccine confidence may still need a little more work through better communication while dismissing disinformation. If one will recall, not too long ago, the President himself encouraged confidence for the measles vaccine. On occasion, he still reminds the people of its value and importance. As the nation continues to await daily for deliveries of more vaccines, building confidence in this remains to be a concern wherein perhaps more information and less misinformation plays a very crucial role.