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Achieving Herd Immunity: Sen. Joel Villanueva, during Friday’s hybrid Committee of the Whole hearing on the country’s COVID-19 vaccination program, January 15, 2021, asks about the capability of achieving herd immunity, or when most of a population is immune to an infectious disease that would provide indirect protection to those who are not immune to the disease. Villanueva said that during the previous hearing, it was mentioned that the target is to vaccinate up to 70 million Filipinos and get 148 million doses of vaccine this year. “So with that in mind, my only question is that one, are you ready for this? How many healthcare workers would be actively needed for this? Because I remember, the past few months, we were trying to get as many workers as possible... if you look at the 148 million doses in 2021, and you divide 148 million to the remaining 351 days, it would mean, we will be having 421,652 doses per day to hit the target. So my question is, is this realistic? Do we have adequate health care workers to roll this out?” Villanueva asked. Herd immunity is a concept in vaccination program wherein a virus can no longer spread easily because enough people are immune to it. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)