By Artchil B. Fernandez
A year ago, the first cluster of novel human pneumonia cases was reported in Wuhan, China. Patients with the disease had fever, malaise, dry cough, and dyspnea. The disease was diagnosed as viral pneumonia. The causative agent of the disease is a novel coronavirus based on the whole-genome sequencing results, the seventh member of the coronavirus family to infect humans.
The World Health Organization (WHO) in January this year officially called the infectious disease coronavirus disease of 2019 (Covid-19). Based on established practice and the virus’s phylogeny and taxonomy, it was officially designated SARS-CoV-2.
Events moved fast in the first three months of 2020. The outbreak went global immediately that by end of January there were already 9,927 cases with 213 deaths from the initial 34cases with zero death in Day One. On March 11, Day 72, WHO declared a pandemic when cases climbed to 125,875 with 5,404 deaths. By Day 100 (April 8, 2020), global Covid-19 cases reached 1,511,104 and 88,338 people had died.
To stem the tide of infection and slow it down, countries around the world went on a lockdown. The world virtually ground to a halt in the second quarter of 2020. The Philippines instituted the world’s longest lockdown lasting 75 days before gradually easing the restrictions.
Almost a year had passed since the pandemic began and Covid-19 continues to ravage the world. There are now 77,586,703 with 1,706,513 deaths (as of this writing) from the disease data from Johns Hopkins University show. The pandemic brought the global economy to its knees. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the world economy will shrink by 3 percent this year, its steepest slowdown since the Great Depression.
People around the world groaned from pandemic fatigue in the middle of the year and started easing restrictions to jump-start the economy. As people grow weary of the restrictions, laxity in observing health protocols followed and even became a political and polarizing issue in the United States (US). The Philippines is no exception.
Traffic is rearing its ugly head in Metro Manila and many cities around the country, a sign that Filipinos are becoming more relaxed despite no end yet in sight to the pandemic. The government plans to allow seminars, conferences and similar gatherings with 30 percent capacity (how would they determine this is an unanswered question). Pilot face-to-face classes will also start in January next year.
As the Du30 administration rushes to further reopen the country amid the raging pandemic, what is happening in other countries is a grim warning to the Philippines.
Take the case of the US, the epicenter of the pandemic. It has the highest cases of infection in the world (18,057,172) and the highest deaths (319,827). How did the US become the worst country in the world despite its advanced health system and superior medical science?
The answer is simple – the US government and the American people cannot get their act together due to the politicization of pandemic response and the sense of entitlement and hardheadedness of many Americans. Wearing masks, the simplest health protocol that reduces the spread of Covid-19 by 70 percent, is a contentious issue in the US. Many Americans especially Republicans and supporters of Donald Trump refuse to wear masks to show their defiance to authorities and science.
The South Dakota governor, for example, not only refused to order a state-wide mask mandate but would not even mention the word mask. Her fanatical devotion to Trumpism made South Dakota a record holder of having the highest positivity rate in the world at 58 percent. Many Covid-19 cases are being shipped out of the state due to an overwhelmed health system.
In the second week of December, the US recorded 1 million Covid-19 cases in just four days or 250,000 a day on average. In the same period, the US recorded 117,000 hospitalizations in a day, its highest and 3,500 deaths in a day, another record-breaking figure.
Many countries in Europe including Great Britain (UK), Germany, Netherlands and Denmark are now imposing 2 to 4 weeks lockdown this December. A new variant of the Covid-19 virus emerged in the UK with 40 countries now banning travel to and from the country. This new mutation of the virus has also been reported in Italy, Denmark and as far as Australia. Raw data show the new variant is more infectious or transmissible.
South Korea and Japan are also experiencing a new surge. South Korea recorded 1,030 cases a day, its highest since the pandemic broke out there while Japan also has a new record, 3,000 a day. New restrictions are now being imposed in these countries.
These recent developments in the world should put Filipinos and the Du30 administration on alert. Here, many tourist spots are being re-opened, economic activity being accelerated and the government is returning things to normal as if the pandemic is ending. A false sense of security is primarily responsible for the new surges in Europe, the US, Japan and South Korea.
Given the pretension of the Du30 administration and many Filipinos that the pandemic is ending, the country faces a scary situation. If the surge that is going on in many parts of the world strikes the Philippines (a likely scenario), it will have catastrophic consequences given the country’s decrepit health system.
The current surge in many parts of the world is a deadly warning to Filipinos. We should not wait for the worse before acting. Prevention is still better than a cure. There must be a pause in the move towards further re-opening of the economy and allowing more activities. We are already being warned. Ignoring the signs will be calamitous.
