MEDIUM RARE

Well, maybe not 100 percent of the hump, but we’re getting there, bumps and all. After WHO’s declaration of the end of the Covid-19 global health emergency – “it’s still killing, it’s still changing” — we all deserve a pat on the back, don’t we, for surviving and continuing to thrive despite the persistence of the virus. With special mention of and gratitude to 1) our brave, bold frontliners; 2) DOH and a military-like campaign run by the IATF; and 3) People of the Philippines versus a disease that has killed seven million people, among them 66,500 Filipinos. Without pretending to be an expert fence-sitter, I think some of the credit also goes to our 360 days of sunshine (Vitamin D), our culture of family first and last, our instinctive nature to reach and teach those in need, and our hardheadedness in refusing to surrender to a pernicious enemy. We lost too many doctors, nurses, lab assistants but that was at the beginning of the pandemic, when they were fighting an unknown, unseen enemy. That we have come this far speaks volumes of the quality of the medical profession and how they took care of the sick and tried their best, like a mother hen, to protect the population from being infected. Under DOH’s officer in charge, Dr. Ma. Rosario Vergeire, whose confidence bespoke her competence, we learned important facts about Covid and how to avoid it, like a soldier dodging bullets on the battlefield. We learned the value of wearing a mask and washing our hands (for 20 seconds, no less), of keeping our distance and submitting to a series of vaccinations. For all her notoriety, Marites helped spread some of those lessons more than just idle gossip. TV images shocked us of crowds shopping, passengers waiting in the sun and rain for a ride, drinkers merrily squeezed into a bar, widows and single parents waiting endlessly for their “ayuda” – it was life in the raw, but never say die. Remember when bird flu was a health risk and we were saved “because our cities were too dirty for the birds”? When mad cow disease threatened the world but we were saved because only a few people could afford steak? C’est la vie, smile.