Fear of mortality

By Herbert Vego

WHY are we so afraid of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)?

To put it bluntly, we are not ready to die. We panic because the pandemic has earned the notoriety of being “incurable” – the same reason why most governments worldwide have imposed massive lockdowns that restrict people’s travels and public exposures.

The downside is that it has also devastated trade and commerce, especially the tourism industry. With millions of people losing livelihood, we wonder whether the lockdown is indeed the right solution to the consequential economic problems.

But we have heard the poor express their fear of death not because of COVID but of hunger “Hindi kami mamamatay sa virus; mamamatay kami sa gutom.”

For almost six months now since the first case of the novel coronavirus was reported in Wuhan City, China, on December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) has collated a total of 8,869,010 cases, of which 465,107 have died as of yesterday. This means that the vast majority have either recovered or are still hoping to recover.

The figures, to be optimistic about the bad news, do not support the notion that catching COVID means sure death even if it’s true that no vaccine or medicine against it has as yet been approved.

Viewed against today’s world population of 7.8 billion people, the 451,265 COVID-caused deaths are like a few grains in a sack of sand.

As of yesterday, the WHO statistics on COVID-19 cases in the Philippines showed 29,400 cases, of which 1,150 have died since January 30, 2020 when the Department of Health (DOH) reported the first case involving a 38-year-old female Chinese national from Wuhan.

Assuming those figures to be true in our small country with a big population of 110 million, losing 1,150 lives in four months to a single disease is not uncommon. There were 1,600-plus deaths out of the more than 400,000 reported cases of dengue in the Philippines in 2019. Therefore, like the victims of the “incurable” dengue, COVID patients have good chances of healing while in the hospital.

According to the latest findings of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), an average of 1,587 persons die daily – repeat, daily — of various diseases and other causes. That means 66 deaths per hour, or one (1) per minute.

The WHO says that the coronavirus is mainly spread person to person through respiratory droplets expelled by breathing, coughing, sneezing, or talking.

Anybody touching an “infected” inanimate object – a light switch or elevator button, for example – has to avoid touching his eyes, nose and mouth.

By wearing a mask, social distancing and hand washing — we are reminded – we ward off contamination.

There is therefore no reasonable ground for panic whenever we hear about a far-away neighbor testing COVID-positive. Such over-reaction could lead to stress, sleeplessness or depression that could weaken natural defenses to diseases.

Where contamination has already set in, the only available and statistically proven way to fight for life is to rely on a strong immune system.

It is a textbook truism that during a bacterial or viral infection, our white blood cells attack the antigens (invaders) at the site of the infection, breaking them apart. The first line of defense is followed up by a second batch of white cells that engulf both the offending and defending cells, thus eliminating them and their consequential toxins.

This “war,” unfortunately, restricts the blood supply to the digestive system, causing loss of appetite and raising fever level. Such changes, nevertheless, speed up chemical reactions needed for recovery.

Once the infection is controlled, the macrophages return to the lymphoid tissue with the particles of the destroyed antigens. A later infection by the same antigens is recognized and warded off easily. This “memory” enables the immune system to rapidly subdue the antigen whenever it comes back.

The same “memory” principle applies to vaccination, which is the injection into the body of a weakened or dead strain of the antigen.

Strange, indeed, that the biggest enemy the world is afraid of is the smallest, invisible “crowned” virus.

-oOo-

WE hope it’s true that the “expired” Panay Electric Co. (PECO) has stopped sponsoring “advertorials” blaming the incumbent power distribution utility, MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power), for the week-end brownouts in portions of Iloilo City.

No less than Mayor Jerry P. Treñas has taken up the cudgels for MORE Power in media interviews, saying that preventive brownouts are meant to prolong the usefulness of the facilities that the company has “inherited” from PECO through the legal expropriation process.

He believes in the sincerity of More Power President Roel Z. Castro, who has assured customers of upgraded facilities through a modernization program which would cost the company at least P1.8-B in the next three years.

It has only been a little more than three months since the new franchisee took over on February 29, 2020.

Perhaps, the mayor could affect a win-win mediation in the “word war” between the two companies based on the law (RA 11212) awarding new 25-year distribution franchise, which actually calls for a “smooth transition” period of two years.

One of the company’s immediate tasks going on is the replacement of all electric meters in the city with the new digital meters in accordance with quality standards set by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

Also identified for immediate replacement are decaying wooden poles, undersized transformers, and undersized conductors, among others.

Had PECO paid attention to the aforesaid shortcomings brought to its attention by customers, Congress might have renewed its franchise, and MORE Power would not have come in to fill the void.