The vaccine debate in Vietnam: There isn't really one

I get that these discussions get really heated all around the world and perhaps it has something to do with the Vietnamese dedication to the state or maybe something to do with Communism that I don't understand but as far as there being a pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine debate is concerned: There isn't really one in this country that I can see.

Granted, I don't know that many Vietnamese people and the ones I do know have intentionally westernized themselves to a certain degree either by relationships or employment but as far as there being a resistance of sorts against the vaccination process, I haven't noticed one at all.

Recently the 2nd round of AZ shots were given out to everyone in Da Nang, where I live and while you do have the option to opt out of it if you want (even as a foreigner) doing so results in mandatory frequent testing and I don't know if that is at your own expense or not, but I would imagine it is.

The system was very fast and there were a ton of staff there. It was a little bit funny because unlike the first round there were no documents in English this time around and you'd be pretty hard-pressed to find a foreigner that can read Vietnamese. Thankfully, the forms seemed pretty standard and the people at the front of phase one of the process were very willing to just fill it in for you. I don't think the information really matter all that much outside of your name and the number that they assign to you. I'm just speculating here but there was a questionnaire that had about 15 questions on it that I couldn't read and when I got to the front the staff just clicked what I presume was "no" to all of them without even saying anything to me about what the questions were.

once you got your shot or filled out a form declaring that you were declining to receive it, you went into an auditorium and waited for your name to be called. This was kind of a funny process whenever the name was a western name because the pronunciation was a little less than perfect and many people couldn't tell if it was their name that was being called out or not.

Now as far as the lack of resistance is concerned: I can only speculate on why this is but I think it is because of a number of factors. From my perspective it appears as though the Vietnamese people have a much greater level of trust in the government than other countries. For the most part the people aren't strong-armed by the police and people live pretty freely here provided they don't do something illegal. While there are forms and red-tape to many processes and businesses, for the most part these seem to be much simpler here. Therefore there isn't a great deal of hatred for the government.

Also, there is no talk of forcing the population to get vaccinated and even if you are not vaccinated and don't lie about this fact, it still doesn't have much impact on your freedom of movement around the country. One of my friends doesn't want the vaccine yet he is allowed into all the places that we are with the QR code scanner thing that is only sporadically implemented anyway.

So while I don't necessarily think that it is a good thing that there is no resistance and am not really enthusiastic about having it myself, I'm just pointing out a fact. Of all the countries in the world I think that this one is very unlikely to ever see any sort of mass protests but then again, there have been zero talks about forcing vaccine passports on the population.