‘But all these can change at the drop of a hat. Or at a sneeze of an unvaccinated. Or a cough or a handshake.’
ANYONE driving down EDSA and through the NCR’s major commercial areas can easily come to the conclusion — with the exception of the face masks still being worn by almost everybody — that the pandemic is over and life is back to normal. Or back to the new normal, given the masks.
Walk into a mall on a weekend and you’ll see the happy faces of shopkeepers because the crowds are returning. With children in tow! And with the Christmas buntings all over the place, bringing a child into a mall will most probably lead to buying something for the child.
Remember how cooped up they’ve been since March of 2020! So that buying something for the child can actually be buying something for the child, with a vengeance.
Which is why shopkeepers are smiling more often these days.
I am happy for them, and for myself as well. While I have no human kids – I have three but they are of the four-legged kind who thankfully are immune to the commercialization of the season – I have an inner child who isn’t immune, and who can get out of hand sometimes.
During the pandemic when everything was closed, Amazon was open. And I’ve accumulated more Amazon boxes in the last 24 months than I have eaten Hershey’s Kisses in the same period. And mind you I eat a lot of Kisses.
But now the malls are open, and the restaurants, too. And the gyms and the spas and everything else that lured us out of our homes (especially on weekends) and made us spend and got the economy moving.
Which is a good thing long overdue.
At the same time, you and I know that we can just be as controlled in our spending as we are in our socializing. We in Metro Manila, it is true, are fortunate that the National Government chose to focus on NCR in its immunization drive, raising the level of vaccination percentage rates to way above the 70s. Heck San Juan even achieved more than. 100% of its target. And that’s why our hospitals are no longer filled with patients and no longer turning others away, and also why face shields are no longer a necessity when moving about.
But all these can change at the drop of a hat. Or at a sneeze of an unvaccinated. Or a cough or a handshake. While Metro Manila is highly vaccinated, our provinces aren’t. And how do we know if the person next to us is or is not vaccinated and is or is not from the province?
Years ago when I worked for a beverage giant and we would hold leadership meetings in Tokyo, I used to find it amusing that some Japanese citizens would walk around with masks on. How overly cautious of them, I would tell myself, at the same time thinking I would never ever do that. Then COVID-19 hit, and now I wonder if I would ever be able to walk around maskless. Because just when you think we are close to that point, bam! A new variant emerges.
The traffic I guess is the usual sign that the holiday season is upon us and it’s time to make your list and check it twice and make sure all the gifts are bought and delivered. But the best gift, still, that we could give ourselves and our loved ones is good health. And during this season, that means continuing to recognize that the danger remains, which requires our constant vigilance, even as we take baby steps to return to normal, to the new normal.
Safe shopping everyone!
