Heard It Through the Gripe-Vine: Our New Abnormal
Philip Cu Unjieng
A) Just in case you’ve been hiding under a stone, or burying your head underground, one of the more amusing news of the week that just passed was the ‘We don’t need it anymore… oh yes, we still need it’ flip-flopping on face shields. First it was Thursday June 17, and it was advised that face shields would only be required in hospitals. On June 21, Monday, what was officially pronounced was that face shields were no longer required outdoors, but IATF was still appealing that it be required when indoors. Then by the evening of that same day, June 21, face shields were mandatory once again.
So to all the places where I’ve dined over the last few months and left my face shields (I’m good with remembering I entered with the masks, but I’m constantly forgetting the shields), could I please have my shields back? I’m down to my last few pairs and was happy late last week, thinking I would no longer be needing them. But alas, it’s not to be.
And the main culprit behind this indecision is a very serious threat - the Delta variant of COVID-19. Technically, it’s the B.1.617.2, and popularly referred to as the Indian variant. It’s found to be 60 percent more transmissible than Alpha (B.1.1.7 or the UK variant); and it’s already the dominant variant for the latest cases in the UK, close to 90 percent of new infections. The reporting of 13 confirmed Delta variant cases in the Philippines sent sufficient shock waves that all talk about relaxing health measures such as shields and masks were quickly abandoned. There’s just too much at stake, and so much uncertainty on how to cope with this ‘pumped-up’ Delta variant. It’s COVID-19 on steroids!
So as far as I’m concerned, I can make light of the flip-flopping; but I’m happier that the government responded favorably to the warnings of the doctors and scientists. Thankfully, our government understood how the relaxing of protocols in India, as they thought they had subdued COVID in the country, led to the deadly outbreak of two months ago. We should be doing everything in our power to ensure those same scenes of mass deaths and cremations, of hospitals overburdened, and the health system collapsing, aren’t replicated here.
With the virus mutating and finding ways to survive (worrying news from India that’s there’s even a Delta Plus variant); while the vaccinations are potent weapons to protect oneself from the virus, we still can’t be that sure of first-person immunity. Quarantine fatigue be damned, it’s still time to stay prudent and cautious – while taking steps to open businesses, and prove resiliency can be achieved in consonance with health safety.
From late 2020, the Casa Mercedes ‘No beso beso’ fan, then a playful admonition and fun reminder, now prophetic? (Photo from the Tesoro’s FB page, and with the permission of Casa Mercedes’ Monchet Olives)
B) Came across an article recently that emanated from New York, and it was posing the question of whether after COVID, we could reasonably expect the handshake to make a comeback. In the USA, it’s been mostly fist and elbow bumps, but now that social distancing is on the wane, and restrictions are being lifted, writer Thomas Urbain was wondering if the social ritual of ‘pressing the flesh’ would return. Japan has always been about bowing, so social distancing is nothing new to the Japanese, and I expect things won’t really change there.
And this got me thinking about how here in the Philippines, as we’re such a warm and friendly people, we like to adapt everything from all over the world - and the more physical and effusive, the better. The Titas of Manila made a big deal of greeting each other with the beso beso. Although truth be told, with the Lola’s and aunts I remember from decades ago, their beso beso was more about synchronized air-kissing, as they’d go through the motions of going from one cheek to the other but never actually make contact. Instead, they’d kiss the air some three to six inches away from the face of the one they’re greeting, and the other person would be reciprocating in the same manner.
Casa Mercedes, the purveyor of traditional hand fans made funky and hip, came out with a No beso beso line late last year. It was a light admonition, a fun reminder, of how with COVID raging, we all had to be practicing proper health and safety protocols. But what if it wasn’t just a playful message, but actually prophetic? Is the Beso Beso on its way to extinction, a vanishing ritual of Filipino greeting, and social etiquette?
I’ve often ruminated on how much behavioral patterns, and things we’ve taken for granted, will be forever altered by how this pandemic has persisted and been with us for over a year now. Small example, but do children below the age of four even remember a time when everyone around them wasn’t wearing a face mask? For them, that would be the reality of what they encounter whenever they leave the house - all these masked people, who all look the same!
I wonder about how this will impact on them as they grow older, especially if these things don’t change - as it seems we’ll be moving away from the masks and shields at a later time than most of the world. Will human contact here undergo some changes due to this COVID health crisis? As functioning adults, our perspective has more to do with resiliency and national recovery, jumpstarting the economy, and the reset button. But in the meantime, I think the social fabric may have been shifting, especially for these young Filipino children - even the social skills of the four to six-year-old whose only experience of school and interaction with kids their age has been via distance & online learning. Some food for thought there.