Will the Philippines survive the coronavirus pandemic?

Photo from Pharmaceutical Technology

By Chester B Cabalza

Blogger's Notes:
Commentary of an Academic 
(Copyright @ 2020 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).

From the almost 110 million Filipinos - there are 501 infected cases, 33 deaths, and 19 recovered patients today from the unforgiving coronavirus pandemic. The rapid spread of the COVID-19 in the Philippines is reshaping our tenacity to reform one of Southeast Asian nations’ poor yet elitist health care system.

Recent uptrend data of the dead and infected patients, whether tested asymptomatic or symptomatic disease, present susceptibility among Filipino elderly, frontline professional and overseas workers, and mostly the middle class in urban areas based from medical bulletin.

Historically, Filipino ancestors coped well with epidemics and did not suffer demographic collapse when the Spanish conquistadors colonized the Philippines, unlike the Aztecs and Native Americans had to agonize from the dreadful scourge of Spain’s microscopic secret weapon of small pox outbreak. 

The European disease of smallpox atrophied indigenous peoples’ numbers in the New World during the infancy of western exploration in 15^th century. The absence of natural immunity to smallpox of the Aztecs annihilated their population. Three centuries after, it was only in that period the first virus epidemic had ended through a revolutionary vaccine discovered by British physician Edward Jenner.

Studies showed that Filipinos in pre-Hispanic times previously acquired immunity to diseases through trading contacts with the Chinese, Arabs, and Southeast Asians. But the tropical Philippines’ collective disease history may suggest that Filipinos had more in common with Austronesians in the Pacific islands than in mainland Asia, and here comes the crusade in the current human-induced disaster of the coronavirus pandemic.

The COVID-19, now touted as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, offer a plethora of perspectives where local political culture matters in mitigating the deadly virus. The Philippines’ young population also suffers the curse of coronavirus with more senior citizens falling down, although below the global average of 3.5% of mortality rate, even with a strict call for a viral regional and in due time a national lockdown.

Recent call of the executive branch in the Philippines to give President Rodrigo Duterte additional power is in question but time is of the essence in saving more lives. Tightening of our national borders in all frontiers without the declaration of national emergency is a bravado act in itself for anti-pandemic work in an effort for an all-out campaign against the coronavirus to flatten the curve given a decrepit state of public health system in the Philippines.

Rapid urbanization and population explosion in current globalized world, in which the Philippines is guilty of the post-modern pains, made more emerging diseases susceptible nowadays as the rich and poor succumb to its terror reign. Thousands of viruses continue to evolve and mutate, adapting from patterns from animal-to-human to human-to-human transmissions.

The coronavirus pandemic that started from China has dramatically affected the world in virtually only few months and the giant neighbour for some geopolitical reasons now a close friend of the Philippines battles for its survival as well. It may be prematurely construed that the COVID-19 disease born from Wuhan in China is rapidly killing Europeans and Americans at a fast rate, perhaps due to zero natural immunity to the new and mutated virus.

A bouncing effect or recirculation process may occur that it may contaminate again the original epicentre if not adequately contained. The West now frightens the East as hubs of infection while Italy and the United States grieve from unprecedented rising death tolls, the biggest blow from unseen enemy after the two world wars. Out of fear, travellers from old and the new worlds are forcibly barred from entry or obliged to mandatory quarantine in many lockdown Asian cities.   

A courageous complete bloc access from hot spot countries of the COVID-19 rising fatalities is possible for Metro Manila if containment fails after the enhanced community quarantine. Closest to our geopolitical region, a grim yet unrealistic scenario can be done following modern hermit kingdom North Korea of locking down with no coronavirus infection yet or Mongolia’s sole infected case may be emulated if complete bloc access shall be enforced properly by the military and law enforcers. 

A month of enhanced community quarantine may not be enough despite the Philippines’ fragile economic resiliency. The world certainly copied Venice’s legal remedy of trentino (30 days) but increased the forced isolation of infected sailors to quarantino (40 days) where the medical word quarantine has been coined. But Italy aches in deep sorrow as the new epicentre of coronavirus pandemic nowadays as Cuban physicians arrive to help them combat the selfish virus.  

London lockdown and practice of staying at home for seven months occurred during the Great Plague of 1665, becoming the longest outbreak in human history. The English folks painted red roses in front their house doors, even writing a plea for forgiveness. Mass graves became a common practice to decontaminate the fallen community.

At that time when the Americans occupied the Philippines, the US government established the Culion Leper Colony, a former leprosarium located in Palawan, to get rid of leprosy in the archipelago. It was proposed as the sole method known at that time to isolate existing cases and gradually phasing out the disease from the population, although it offered patients to receive adequate care and medical treatments.

Today Filipinos’ mobility has been made easier by the presence of low-cost airline carriers afforded by the moneyed and ever-growing middle class. The hyper-concocted world in current world health emergency also enabled infectious agents, like a constantly mutating virus, to multiply rapidly and spread unpredictably. A significant percentage of local COVID-19 cases involve a lot of traveling, either in business or leisure.

With proper respect to anonymity and privacy of persons under investigation and infected cases, majority of stricken-ill and death toll of the COVID-19 patients in the Philippines come from financially capable socio-economic bracket. Most of them were confined and quarantined in high-end hospitals and reside from gated subdivisions in the metropolitan, mostly from Quezon City in Metro Manila. Self-confessed asymptomatic patients who underwent mandatory self-quarantine were senators and popular actors. 

Question on social mobility and inequality may hinder uncertainty surrounding the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in the country. As poor Filipino families in informal settlements rely to prayers and strong natural body immunity system, so as not to acquire and get infected by the deadly virus.

The Philippines is still seen as a country vulnerable to the COVID-19 with increasing number of infected cases. Now that major cases are found outside China, affecting particularly major African, European and Middle East cities, driving xenophobia and national lockdown, the Philippines and other global governments should craft new and clever measures by putting right policies in place to contain the pandemic coronavirus outbreak while many scientists still race to find vaccines to cure the disease, even with the availability of more than 60 kinds of alternative treatments and diagnostics shared worldwide.

Elderly, middle class, urban dwellers more susceptible to the COVID-19

Phto from India Today

By Chester B Cabalza and RJ O Taduran

Blogger's Notes:
Commentary of Academics 
(Copyright @ 2020 by Chester B Cabalza and RJ O Taduran. All Rights Reserved).

The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus in the Philippines is reshaping our tenacity to reform the country’s poor yet elitist health care system. But recent uptrend data of the dead and infected patients, whether tested asymptomatic or symptomatic of the COVID-19, apparently show increasing cases among Filipino elderly, frontline professional and overseas workers, scholars and politicians in urban areas – mostly coming from the middle and upper classes echelon of the society.

The COVID-19, now touted as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, offer a plethora of perspectives where local political culture matters in mitigating the deadly virus.

The success of Asian tiger economies in containing the coronavirus outbreak, maintaining a downtrend number of newly infected cases around Northeast Asian region, has laid down holistic and proactive implementation of travel restrictions on passengers coming to-and-from China, originally the world’s epicentre, despite massive economic loss of major aviation hubs as the world gradually plummets to global recession caused by the latest catastrophe.

In particular, quick responses from the Central Command for Epidemics magnifying a clear health security policy resulted to smarter governance corresponding aggressively in coming up with pragmatic school and work policies, innovative national crisis planning and civil protection systems by cautiously reducing the feeling of abandonment, social inequality and mistrust from governments.  

Ageing Population

As Italy suffers the curse of coronavirus, surpassing the global average of 3.5% of mortality rate, even with a strict call for a viral national lockdown, the favourite Mediterranean holiday tourist spot replaced China as the new epicentre of the pandemic. A developed nation with highly sophisticated socialized healthcare system and part of the Group of Seven (G7) economies, hardly hit by grave fatality which can be attributed to its elderly population who are susceptible to the virus.

The world’s populace is ageing. Fearless forecast by the United Nations predicts that one in six people will turn 65 years old by 2050. The spike in coronavirus cases among geriatric patients worldwide over 60 years of age, heavily relying on pension and health cards, may succumb to the deadly virus in spite of complicated chronic conditions.

Apparent critical inflection of risk from this median age dies from the effect of uncured diseases. Eighty percent of COVID-19-related deaths reported in all of America came from the boomers’ generation, the same gene pool with the highest mortality in Wuhan City of China, birthing symptomatic vulnerability as age increases. Many of the diagnosed cases across continents are senior citizens who are at risk in a state of high stress and tension especially during winter and spring seasons.

Resolute efforts in containing the pandemic need a complete lockdown, whether regional or national, by limiting human-to-human interaction in transmitting the virus especially to the ageing population, obviously observed as the most vulnerable group. Restriction of movements of various modes of transportation in air, land and water should be monitored to lessen transmission to the elderly who heavily rely on public transportation in highly developed cities in Asia and Europe.  

Middle class vulnerabilities

Before local transmission plagued the country, persons under investigations and infected cases were tracked down based from foreign travel history. Diplomats, businessmen, globetrotters, and mostly repatriated Filipino crew members from the Diamond Princess Cruise ship docked in Japan became suspected carriers of first wave human-to-human transmission. By far, the coronavirus pandemic has now infected more than 300,000 people across the globe and killed more than 13,000 patients.

Filipinos’ mobility has been made easier by the presence of low-cost airline carriers afforded by the moneyed and ever-growing middle class. The hyper-concocted world in current world health emergency also enabled infectious agents, like a constantly mutating virus, to multiply rapidly and spread unpredictably. A significant percentage of local COVID-19 cases involve a lot of traveling, either in business or leisure.

Middle class activities such as mass entertainment and sports gatherings were temporarily shut down while various global government advice their respective citizens on staying at home. Enforcement of patrol border and employment of social distancing measures throughout these trying times of generational pandemics make sense to halt annihilation of human population based from best practices considered from humanity’s pandemic medical history during the Spanish flu in 1918 and the H1N1 in 2009.

Marshall McLuhan’s global village has realized the escalation of contagious and emerging infectious diseases brought by the ill-effects of globalization.

The novel coronavirus explicitly has intensified on how Filipino generation X, millennial and gen-Z can utilize technology and data sciences’ interconnectedness giving mandatory online classes for students under community quarantine and set employees’ convenience of working from home in a skeletal workforce to many affected metropolises, now lockdown, where privileged members of the middle and upper classes can enjoy the perks of comfort in large-scale efforts to contain the COVID-19.

Urban space and warfare against an unseen enemy

The influx of city-migration and overpopulation of seven billion people on Earth expose the failure of urban planning to the incubation and widespread of malignant viruses. Contamination and sanitation in major cities are prelude to pandemics caused by human-induced disasters.

Recent implementation of the enhanced community quarantine in the largest Luzon Island, populated by almost 60 million Filipinos, have seen innovative guidelines contested by local and national leaders. But the availability of multifaceted and multi-platform news stories on social media in sharing rapid responses and information dissemination, empowered urban dwellers against ignorance, racism, and blame-game of the COVID-19.

The call for mass testing of every Filipinos, whether or not testing result will turn into positive or negative, remains a big challenge to the government due to limited availability of mass-produced testing kits, either locally made or imported. 

With proper respect to anonymity and privacy of PUIs and infected cases, majority of stricken-ill and death toll of the COVID-19 patients come from financially capable socio-economic bracket. Most of them were confined and quarantined in high-end hospitals and reside from gated subdivisions in the metropolitan, mostly from Quezon City in Metro Manila. Self-confessed asymptomatic patients who underwent mandatory self-quarantine were senators and popular actors.  

Question on social mobility and inequality may hinder uncertainty surrounding the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in the country. As poor Filipino families in informal settlements rely to prayers and strong natural body immunity system, so as not to acquire and get infected by the deadly virus.

On the other hand, the deployment and mobilization of armies in city borders, notwithstanding the heroism of frontline law enforcers and health workers in dealing with pandemics, are commended for their tactical and strategic capabilities in protracted warfare, even highly encouraged to combat with unseen enemy in maintaining peace and stability in societies plagued with unknown fear and confusion.

The Philippines is still seen as a country vulnerable to the COVID-19 with increasing number of infected cases. Now that major cases are found outside China, affecting particularly major African, European and Middle East cities, driving xenophobia and national lockdown, global governments should craft new and clever measures by putting right policies in place to contain the pandemic coronavirus outbreak while scientists still race to find vaccines to cure the disease, even with the availability of more than 60 kinds of alternative treatments and diagnostics shared worldwide.

In the end, a united world that is far better insulated from disease threats sees a safer environment armed with bravery from fear of heath insecurities and certainly is here to challenge humanity’s value system to work together as a community of nations amidst this generation’s greatest trial of survival.