I saw a Covid-19 country graph yesterday put out by endcoronavirus.org, which showed where we stood against the virus, and it was not good. Even though the coverage only reached till the end of May, it clearly showed that the aim to bring down the numbers in the country had largely been unsuccessful.
This sad development, plus the fact that we have partly eased up in our quarantine procedures, raises some pressing questions: how scientific have been our methods, where did we base our decisions and have all these been done in sync with all the available logistics in our grasp?
I distinctly remember that during the first month of quarantine, a city update had been our daily online guide as to how well we managed in arresting the spread of C19. The most common sentiment then had naturally centered around comparing how well we have done against other cities in the country, as though this were a beauty contest. With the present report, if this were a competition indeed, we would undoubtedly be bottom dwellers.
Here, the initial community quarantine imposed nationwide may have limited mobility for all and effectively halted the virus spread. For the moment. However, two other components or processes, testing and contact tracing, had not been widely implemented, even though these were considered equally-important. So, how scientific was that?
The national decision to later ease up on quarantine regulations may have been brought about by a lot of factors; with opening up the economy though in a limited sense, being the most important. Still, it cannot be refuted that this could not have been pushed through without reassurance or go-ahead from health officials who oversee the state of the country, in terms of the fight against the pandemic. That only seems logical.
However, while some concerns from the medical profession may have been raised regarding strategies against covid by the health department, this hardly creates a rippling in the waters, already stirred by panic stricken people, still giddy from the new normal. Issues that include tardy validations in the present statistical status (covid cases, recovered and deaths), to the more important, how equipped we really are medically at the moment, need to be answered. The implication of the latter hinges heavily on how the medical budget and how it is used.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the common tao live through all these. We trudge on because, what else can we do? Aside from staying safe and healthy and then fending for our families first, those close to us next, and our community in general, other things we cannot do anything about. In all, it may sound ironic, but staying home and doing nothing will actually accomplish a lot, but that’s true. Life will go on if we do that, but as shown by the present developments, it’s just so hard.
