Into the third year of our “pandemic response” and we’re still not ready for a perfect dress rehearsal to write THE END to COVID-19!

How many years does it take to teach someone how to wear a face mask? How hard is it to let the mask cover the nose and mouth? Some folks continue to insist that the mask is for covering the chin!

The rule to “avoid touching MEN – mouth, eyes, nose” did not seem necessary when face shields were required, for as experts teach, the eyes are the virus’ first point of entry. By this time, most people have thrown away their face shields, but I wouldn’t. (If you were to ask me to go to some crowded space indoors, for example, I would go only if I had my face shield on — that ungainly accessory protects my eyes. Omicron-22 is telling me not to let my guard down, no, sir.)

As a souvenir of 2019-2021 face shields are not only an oddity, they could be recycled for a different reason later, who knows? As specialists preach, COVID-19 will keep evolving by mutating and producing strange new variants. Even President Duterte has publicly stated that in his opinion, face shields helped bring down infections before the Christmas-New Year revelry kicked in. As it happened, the holidays came and went, with families, groups, large crowds of shoppers, park goers, party revelers, etc. gathered in numbers to celebrate without donning their face shields.

Into the third year of our lockdown by any name, a large number of people still don’t want to be vaccinated. They were described as “vaccine hesitant” though it is now apparent that they were vaccine phobic – until they were told they could not enter a mall without a vaccination card. The mall is all.

In the time of a deadly pandemic COVID was not the sole or leading killer. Everyone has lost relatives, friends and colleagues due to heart, cancer, and other diseases.

Other lessons learned: VCO is the best food supplement to add to your vitamins from A to S (for sunshine). With WFH and less socializing, our cars saved fuel but the cost of fuel keeps going up. Wash your hands frequently; now a water shortage looms.