Indififference is reserved in darkest places in hell
Published Mar 18, 2020 12:00 am
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT
By DIWA C. GUINIGUNDO
Diwa C. Guinigundo
There is an interesting and surprising claim that in the last few decades, we have succeeded in managing famine, plague, and war.
In his bestselling book “Homo Deus, A Brief History of Tomorrow” published in 2016, Yubal Noah Harari argues that while these crises have not been completely eliminated, they have transformed “from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges.”
I find this claim resonating in today’s initial victories against the Covid-19 pandemic.
In China and South Korea, the virus seems to have been neutralized, its spread reversed. China locked down Wuhan and other parts behind the Great Wall. Hospital care was centralized. A great number of medical staff and amounts of medicine were funneled into Wuhan. These measures were implemented until the virus could no longer find an unwitting host. As a result, a few days ago, the last patient was released, and the sequestered medical workers returned to their original stations.
Korea deployed a similar strategy and we are seeing positive outcomes.
The early and decisive strategy instituted by Singapore yielded impressive results. About 200 were infected, but there was no mortality reported.
While this pathogen cannot be seen by the naked eye, they can be beaten by a quick public response system.
A virus needs to propagate itself. Without a host, it would simply expire. This is the rationale underlying a lockdown or enhanced community quarantine. During unavoidable social engagements, social distancing is a must. We need to contain transmission of the disease and for those who have imbibed the virus, mitigate harm by boosting their immune systems. God created our bodies to naturally fight off sickness and disease.
The sick, aging, and immuno-compromised have a high handicap. Despite the odds, public regulation should protect them and shield them from exposure. This is the reason for a general suspension of social activities on a massive scale. Offices and schools, malls and other private establishments must remain closed. On-line food deliveries and grocery shopping are made available for the public. There will be no mass transport, including taxi and Grab rides. There is rhyme and reason behind the recent proclamation of President Duterte.
Social media are replete with views that containment and mitigation measures were announced several days too late. Community quarantine was imposed and the police and the military were given starring roles only when mortality reports were issued in increasing frequency. In last week’s column, the statement of WHO that “travel restrictions could be counterproductive and hurtful to local economies” was questioned despite 38 countries imposing travel bans to and from China even as early as two weeks ago.
The late imposition of travel restrictions has allowed the pathogen to spread rapidly, with mortalities forcing this government’s strict policy on travel even within the Philippines.
Production and distribution of both goods and services now face real challenges. Bank servicing of their corporate and individual clients’ payments necessitates a skeletal force both in their own and in the regulator’s offices. External trade and personal remittances could be severely affected. Stock, bond and foreign exchange markets are invariably disrupted.
What is more hurtful to the Philippine economy than these costs?
As early as 2015, Bill Gates estimated that the economic cost of another epidemic could be as high as $3 trillion. That was five years ago. Gates had a five-point program -- a strong health system; a reserve of trained medical corps; a link-up with both medical and military establishments for quick deployment; germ warfare simulation to check weaknesses; and stepped-up research and development. It looks like these suggestions have fallen to the ground.
The history of various plagues should be instructive.
Harari accounts that the Black Death started in the 1330s in east and central Asia with the flea-dwelling bacterium Yersinia pestis. They infected humans, rats and yes, more fleas, and in the process, propagated themselves throughout Asia, Europe, and North Africa. About 75 to 200 million died. Authorities in the affected countries could not figure out the source of this malady. They were clueless until science revealed that its genesis was “a tiny flea or a single drop of water” that might have contaminated an “entire armada of deadly predators.”
Globalization propagated its spread. More serious epidemics took their roots in America, Australia, and the Pacific Islands with the coming of the first Europeans in search of the new world. The explorers unwittingly brought with them, pathogens against which natives of the islands had no immunity. Local populations were almost decimated.
This person-to-person transmission was of the same mode as the spread of small pox from Cuba to Mexico in the 1520s; flu in Hawaii by the British explorer Captain James Cook in the 1770s; and the Spanish flu in the 1910s in Britain, the USA, India, Australia, Middle East, Argentina, Malaya, and Congo. These latter countries traded with Spain. They exported men, ammunitions, oil, grain, beef, rubber, and copper. Spain exported to them, the virus. Millions perished from this unequal trade.
Consistent with Harari’s proposition, there were comparatively fewer deaths from SARS in 2002-2003; bird flu in 2005; swine flu in 2009-2010; and Ebola in 2014. Even AIDS with 30 million deaths paled in comparison with the millions of mortalities in earlier centuries resulting from greater cross border travels.
The key is to buy time for the medical community to determine Covid-19’s genetic profile and exchange this information worldwide to collectively combat it. On February 6, this column pointed out that the China ban came only after the death of the 44-year-old Chinese from Wuhan. By that time, during the Chinese New Year, a lot of travelers to and from Hubei had already crossed Philippine borders.
The outcome is the fast and furious climb of both incidence and mortality in the Philippines. Mortality is around 8 to 9 percent of reported cases of infection, one of the highest in the world.
So the imperatives today are to contain the spread of the virus, and mitigate the health conditions of those already affected to flatten the so-called curve of the pandemic outbreak. It is important for Filipinos to abide by advisories and protocols to implement the enhanced community quarantine.
We should be reversing the trend soon. Testing kits may be available shortly with faster turnaround and a high degree of accuracy. Both houses of Congress will convene to legislate additional budget as necessary. This is urgent as we hear of private citizens and organizations raising money for PGH and other public hospitals. We commend the big establishments for donating cash and kind to public hospitals for indeed our capacity remains limited. The Cabinet meets daily to iron out any kinks in the implementation of the national strategy. This is a counterpoint to Ayn Rand’s mantra that “the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.”
Dante would have called it undeserved compliment to neutrality, indifference I would say, whose reservation is in the darkest places in hell…
Diwa C. Guinigundo
There is an interesting and surprising claim that in the last few decades, we have succeeded in managing famine, plague, and war.
In his bestselling book “Homo Deus, A Brief History of Tomorrow” published in 2016, Yubal Noah Harari argues that while these crises have not been completely eliminated, they have transformed “from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges.”
I find this claim resonating in today’s initial victories against the Covid-19 pandemic.
In China and South Korea, the virus seems to have been neutralized, its spread reversed. China locked down Wuhan and other parts behind the Great Wall. Hospital care was centralized. A great number of medical staff and amounts of medicine were funneled into Wuhan. These measures were implemented until the virus could no longer find an unwitting host. As a result, a few days ago, the last patient was released, and the sequestered medical workers returned to their original stations.
Korea deployed a similar strategy and we are seeing positive outcomes.
The early and decisive strategy instituted by Singapore yielded impressive results. About 200 were infected, but there was no mortality reported.
While this pathogen cannot be seen by the naked eye, they can be beaten by a quick public response system.
A virus needs to propagate itself. Without a host, it would simply expire. This is the rationale underlying a lockdown or enhanced community quarantine. During unavoidable social engagements, social distancing is a must. We need to contain transmission of the disease and for those who have imbibed the virus, mitigate harm by boosting their immune systems. God created our bodies to naturally fight off sickness and disease.
The sick, aging, and immuno-compromised have a high handicap. Despite the odds, public regulation should protect them and shield them from exposure. This is the reason for a general suspension of social activities on a massive scale. Offices and schools, malls and other private establishments must remain closed. On-line food deliveries and grocery shopping are made available for the public. There will be no mass transport, including taxi and Grab rides. There is rhyme and reason behind the recent proclamation of President Duterte.
Social media are replete with views that containment and mitigation measures were announced several days too late. Community quarantine was imposed and the police and the military were given starring roles only when mortality reports were issued in increasing frequency. In last week’s column, the statement of WHO that “travel restrictions could be counterproductive and hurtful to local economies” was questioned despite 38 countries imposing travel bans to and from China even as early as two weeks ago.
The late imposition of travel restrictions has allowed the pathogen to spread rapidly, with mortalities forcing this government’s strict policy on travel even within the Philippines.
Production and distribution of both goods and services now face real challenges. Bank servicing of their corporate and individual clients’ payments necessitates a skeletal force both in their own and in the regulator’s offices. External trade and personal remittances could be severely affected. Stock, bond and foreign exchange markets are invariably disrupted.
What is more hurtful to the Philippine economy than these costs?
As early as 2015, Bill Gates estimated that the economic cost of another epidemic could be as high as $3 trillion. That was five years ago. Gates had a five-point program -- a strong health system; a reserve of trained medical corps; a link-up with both medical and military establishments for quick deployment; germ warfare simulation to check weaknesses; and stepped-up research and development. It looks like these suggestions have fallen to the ground.
The history of various plagues should be instructive.
Harari accounts that the Black Death started in the 1330s in east and central Asia with the flea-dwelling bacterium Yersinia pestis. They infected humans, rats and yes, more fleas, and in the process, propagated themselves throughout Asia, Europe, and North Africa. About 75 to 200 million died. Authorities in the affected countries could not figure out the source of this malady. They were clueless until science revealed that its genesis was “a tiny flea or a single drop of water” that might have contaminated an “entire armada of deadly predators.”
Globalization propagated its spread. More serious epidemics took their roots in America, Australia, and the Pacific Islands with the coming of the first Europeans in search of the new world. The explorers unwittingly brought with them, pathogens against which natives of the islands had no immunity. Local populations were almost decimated.
This person-to-person transmission was of the same mode as the spread of small pox from Cuba to Mexico in the 1520s; flu in Hawaii by the British explorer Captain James Cook in the 1770s; and the Spanish flu in the 1910s in Britain, the USA, India, Australia, Middle East, Argentina, Malaya, and Congo. These latter countries traded with Spain. They exported men, ammunitions, oil, grain, beef, rubber, and copper. Spain exported to them, the virus. Millions perished from this unequal trade.
Consistent with Harari’s proposition, there were comparatively fewer deaths from SARS in 2002-2003; bird flu in 2005; swine flu in 2009-2010; and Ebola in 2014. Even AIDS with 30 million deaths paled in comparison with the millions of mortalities in earlier centuries resulting from greater cross border travels.
The key is to buy time for the medical community to determine Covid-19’s genetic profile and exchange this information worldwide to collectively combat it. On February 6, this column pointed out that the China ban came only after the death of the 44-year-old Chinese from Wuhan. By that time, during the Chinese New Year, a lot of travelers to and from Hubei had already crossed Philippine borders.
The outcome is the fast and furious climb of both incidence and mortality in the Philippines. Mortality is around 8 to 9 percent of reported cases of infection, one of the highest in the world.
So the imperatives today are to contain the spread of the virus, and mitigate the health conditions of those already affected to flatten the so-called curve of the pandemic outbreak. It is important for Filipinos to abide by advisories and protocols to implement the enhanced community quarantine.
We should be reversing the trend soon. Testing kits may be available shortly with faster turnaround and a high degree of accuracy. Both houses of Congress will convene to legislate additional budget as necessary. This is urgent as we hear of private citizens and organizations raising money for PGH and other public hospitals. We commend the big establishments for donating cash and kind to public hospitals for indeed our capacity remains limited. The Cabinet meets daily to iron out any kinks in the implementation of the national strategy. This is a counterpoint to Ayn Rand’s mantra that “the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.”
Dante would have called it undeserved compliment to neutrality, indifference I would say, whose reservation is in the darkest places in hell…