When it comes to COVID, it seems that there is a general agreement that we want to get rid of it as soon as possible and go back to our regular life. Ideally, a better version of it.

The disagreement seems to lie on how to go about achieving it. I won’t be going into the pros and cons of the different approaches. I trust public health and, even though I don’t entirely agree with some of their measures, I follow their instructions.

But what baffles and angers me is the anti-vaccination issue, which, to be honest, in such a modern society  should not even exist. Of course, I’m not referring to those who cannot take the vaccine due to medical restrictions or because they don’t have permission (such as young children). I’m referring to the rest. With their actions, these people are managing to make COVID great again!

I’ve been a scientist for most of my life and it’s only natural for me to have faith in the scientific process. We can trace the roots of this process back to the ancient Egyptian medical textbooks around 1600BC. It has been used and refined by all the major civilisations such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Arabas, Persians and the list can go on forever. Sir Francis Bacon, the English Renaissance statesman and philosopher, eventually documented it and promoted it.

In itself, the method is relatively simple and I’m sure everyone can understand it. Let’s take a straightforward example.

Imagine I want to know how much time it takes to bake the perfect pizza. I start by looking at what master pizzaiolos recommend. The time taken for a wood oven preheated at a particular temperature to cook a pizza is between eight and 12 minutes.

So the next step is to prepare the experiments, probably trying similar pizzas for eight, nine, 10, 11 and 12 minutes. Then, I would give the pizzas to the people and ask them to rate them. I’ll continue like that until a large majority of people agree.

Of course, there will always be someone who likes it slightly burnt or undercooked but it’s safe to go with the choice of the majority.

Even though such a system is not perfect, it has been tried and tested for millennia, giving us the best answers possible. This simple method was also the main reason why the world achieved incredible advances in the past centuries.

The search for the COVID vaccine was very similar, only a lot more complex. First, an army of scientists looked at the traditional ways of finding a vaccine and some even developed new approaches. Artificial intelligence was instrumental in all of this and, in some cases, it managed to speed up the process substantially.

Taking the vaccine is not just about protecting yourself; it’s about protecting the vulnerable in our community who cannot take it- Alexiei Dingli

Then, they created the vaccine. They started the clinical trials under the strict supervision of medical authorities worldwide until they were eventually approved.

Of course, no drug is 100 per cent perfect and some do cause side effects but, in most cases, those side effects are nothing compared to the devastating impact of the virus.

Some people beg to differ because they have a different opinion. But this is not about having a different preference. Here we are not talking about preferring a Capricciosa instead of a Margherita. Science doesn’t work that way.

If you want to push a different viewpoint, you are free to do so. However, first you have to study, get a medical degree, do the experiments, submit your work to scrutiny by the international community and prove that your perspective is correct. That is how we refute a scientific conclusion.

Viewing a video on YouTube, reading the title of a dodgy article on Facebook  or discussing the latest medical findings at your local band club between one cheesecake and a coffee is not considered a valid scientific process.

Calling the pandemic a hoax while refuting the overwhelming list of COVID-related deaths is unacceptable, especially to those families who have lost someone dear. Repeating what your neighbour said while shopping at the local grocery store does not equate to a fact. Pinning this pandemic on an evil plan by Big Pharma to rake in millions, Bill Gates to alter our DNA or Skynet to control us using AI is just a load of crap.

And if you insist on believing this, please do a favour to humanity and educate yourself.

In the end, you might argue that we live in a free country where everyone has a right to do whatever one wants with one’s own life. But this is not true because our actions can affect others. If our liberty had no bounds, I would be free to drink-drive. But I can’t do it because I can hurt myself or others in the process, so laws are in place to avoid that.

Taking the vaccine is not just about protecting yourself; it’s about protecting the vulnerable in our community who cannot take it. It’s about helping the country get back to normal, supporting local businesses to reopen and safeguarding the jobs on the line.

It is a civic duty of everyone to take it.

So let’s not waste more time, take the vaccine and help our country stand back on its own feet today rather than tomorrow.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.