‘… there is no more excuse for government to get this wrong. We’ve been at it for
a year and six months…’
I HAD a chance to go out last weekend to see what kind of crowd an Alert Level 2 brings to the malls. It was nice to see folks out again, and good to see businesses and shops exerting every effort to make sure that health protocols are in place. It’s a delicate balance as always, one that requires cooperation from customers as well as the business owners.
On one hand, as experts say, the pandemic isn’t over yet. The detection of the new variant Omicron should give us pause, but not excessive paranoia. There is a lot of unknowns about omicron for now, and it does not help to give in to panic and hopelessness. Instead, we stick to adhering to social distancing protocols, vigilant mask wearing, washing our hands, and limiting the risk we expose ourselves to by being conscious of good air ventilation.
Fortunately, Filipinos have generally taken to wearing masks, unlike in some other countries where their residents fight vigorously against mask mandates. It is also fortunate that the South African authorities have sounded the alarm as early as possible on the new variant, allowing other jurisdictions to take the necessary precautions to ward off the spread.
Which brings us to Philippine authorities, yet again. Our authorities should already be equipped to deal with new variants. It’s not the first one we’ve seen in almost two years, and it certainly won’t be the last. We’re not back in January 2020, ladies and gentlemen.
Our government should already know what works and what does not. The things that work do not include the use of face shields, as already repeated by scientists and folks who know more about engineering and air flow.
Timely travel bans can only be efficient if coupled with testing, tracing, and vaccination. To be charitable, contact tracing efforts have been mediocre, and so far the only “results” we see comes by way of getting more spam messages via SMS. We are likewise in a better place than we were a year ago — more people have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Government should keep pushing more vaccination drives, similar to the model that was initiated by Vice President Leni Robredo in partnership with local government units and the private sector. The latest public surveys show that more people want to get vaccinated than in previous months, and government should take advantage of this sentiment.
In any event, there is no more excuse for government to get this wrong. We’ve been at it for a year and six months, and all the learnings from the time that the first lockdown was declared should already be assessed and corrected — again there is no reason why implementation cannot be better these days. No more of this face shield and curfew nonsense — these have been shown to have very little positive effect on curbing the spread of the virus.
Hang tight, dear millennials and fillennials. It’s not over yet, and we should keep taking steps to protect ourselves and our loved ones from getting sick these days.
