While waiting for COVID-19 vaccines to actually arrive, the Department of Health needs to mount an information drive to improve the public’s trust in vaccines, Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson said Sunday.

Lacson warned of the possibility that the vaccines that arrive may go to waste mainly because many Filipinos have low trust in them.

“What our officials including Health Sec. Francisco Duque III should do is to improve the public’s trust in vaccines, instead of just announcing when the vaccines will arrive. Besides, if very few Filipinos are willing to be vaccinated, the vaccines that actually arrive may go to waste,” he said in an interview on DZRH radio.

He noted that while the government is doing everything to bring in the vaccines, the vaccines may just be left to expire if people are not willing to be vaccinated.

Also, Lacson said focusing on prevention and cure is as important as – if not more important than – being too engrossed with the number of infections and deaths.

“Lagi natin tinitingnan araw-araw, binibilang natin ilan natamaan ng COVID, ilan namamatay. Hindi ba dapat forward-looking tayo? Kausapin natin ang mga kababayan natin, magkaroon tayo ng information campaign. Magtiwala kayo sa bakuna kasi sa ngayon wala tayong ibang makakapitan kundi ang bakuna (We keep on focusing on the number of infections and deaths every day. Should we not be forward-looking? We should convince the public via an information campaign to trust that the vaccines are our only hope against the pandemic for now),” he stressed.