I, for one, believe that constantly talking about covid is not always a pleasant idea. Despite this, we feel that in view of the unnatural circumstances since eight months ago, it is the more neighborly thing, that we can at the very least extend to each other. While this may come from either a sense of duty relating to our professions or just having empathy for others, the truth is, in this pandemic, playing brother’s keeper had seem to be nothing but a natural knee-jerk reaction among many.
Understandably, it is also true that these often prove to be bothersome or irritating to a fault at times, because everyone would rather be “somewhere more pleasant and doing something else.
Our ways at distracting ourselves from our present quarantine situation are nothing but tell-tale signs of this. They might be in the guise of tik-toks, artwork displays, and travel or food pics online, but in the end, there is no right or wrong in whatever it is that is keeping us going and getting our wits together. Human nature dictates that we send these out, as we experience them first hand, especially with those near to us. Hopefully though, that should be the only things that we send.
In a nutshell, we all held out as long as we could. That might prove to be the most accurate assessment yet, when pertaining to how humankind fared against covid for nearly a year. In another perspective, the pandemic Covid-19 should have been contained more easily, had we all been a cooperative lot. Factor in all the goodies you can think of, just as long as we do not forget to put in politics as numero uno.
More surprising, while much has already been written about covid in an almost 3-D depiction, less airtime has, as of yet, been given to the huge cost which comes with fighting it mano y mano. Unfortunately, with no actual breakdown available, the extreme cost of a covid treatment can only be guessed at, at half a mil at the minimum, and a little over a million in our currency, max.
Many months ago, the mayor had warned jokingly that violators of the curfew without a valid excuse, who had likewise contracted the virus, had better be ready to cough up at least 500 thousand up front for treatment, because the city would not be footing their hospital bills. Then just about two weeks ago, our friends and acquaintances from Visayas and Luzon have told us of their medical expenditures related to covid, and had some total bills reaching a million or more.
Gripe about it or not, if this here is the hidden Mickey in these pandemic times, can all even afford it? That seems to be more than a 64-dollar question right there.
How anyone would like to now wish that this were all water under the bridge so that we could finally go back to as we were. However, in this instance, the saying would have implied moving water, whereas, in this case, it is not. In the way that covid has transferred from host to host, on a day to day, affecting family after family, when will all these be water under the bridge? In a video interview I recently watched, they’ve said that definitely, we are all in it for the long haul. While that may seem to be a positive and convincing perspective, my mind just race back to those who would buckle, not only at the gravity of the virus ravaging through their insides, but at the families, with nary to get by, who would be left to shoulder the expenses.
