While it is a given that people of all nationalities who migrate to the US carry with them the unique set of beliefs from their homeland, including the do’s and don’ts of their folk medicine, some can be considered as merely quaint, while others are down-
right dangerous.
This is true of Filipinos who eventually become Fil-Ams, who still believe in the power of albularyos – akin to Filipino shamans – or faith healers to cure any disease. The former resort to herbal medicine, while the latter believe in the power of prayer. In some cases, the albularyos and faith healers are the first choice whenever illness strikes, while in other cases they are the last resort, notably when conventional Western medicine is considered to be no longer effective and the sick patient and their family are only advised to make their last moments more comfortable while waiting for the inevitable.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread sometime in March of 2020, the US and the Philippines joined almost all the countries of the world in enforcing mandatory lockdowns.
Conventional wisdom said that the best way to beat the coronavirus was for the big drug companies to develop vaccines, and fast.
And here is where the problem lies. Lifetime FilAm anti-vaxxers were joined by their countrymen who expressed uncertainty that the new vaccines created to defeat COVID-19 were effective as they had been rushed by the various multinational drug companies that developed them.
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