Panic due to pandemic

By Herbert Vego

 

WITH due respect to contrary opinion, I believe panic over the Covid-19 pandemic has done more harm than the pandemic itself. Obviously, its consequential “flight” response cancels the “fight” out.

Have our physicians abided by the “do no harm” principle behind their Hippocratic Oath?

No, sad to say.  With high officials from the Department of Health (DOH) rattling off daily cases of infections and death rather than sharing immediate solutions, they could be mistaken for statisticians.  If they have succeeded at all, it’s in scaring us to stay at home despite their suggested “face-shielding, masking and distancing” whenever in public places.

But statistics, when judged at face value, aren’t as scary as they are made to appear.  Here in Iloilo City with around half-a-million population, for instance, out of 5,159 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the past ten months, only 138 have died.

More than that number must have died of depression due to loss of business while on lockdown or of sheer hunger due to loss of employment.

A thousand Ilonggos or more could have died of other diseases in the same 10-month period.

Couldn’t the government have done better by appeasing us with true tales on how the majority of Covid-19 patients have recovered [HLV1] ? Why don’t they want us to know?

Instead, they want us to wait endlessly for expensive vaccine from China, which by golly is the source of coronavirus.

This is not meant to conform with the yarn that China is engaged in a “plandemic” aimed at world domination.  But whether the vaccine we wait for is made in China or elsewhere, the Big Pharma always means business. So…

“Aanhin pa ang damo kung patay na ang kabayo?”

 

HOPING IT REALLY ENDS TODAY

WE in Iloilo City hope that, as scheduled, today marks the expiration of Mayor Jerry  P. Treñas’ Executive Order No. 12-2021. The EO prohibits “mass gatherings” from Feb. 1 to 8 in response to the rise of Covid-19 cases in the metropolis.

Friday this week, the city reported 10 new cases in the wake of swab tests (RT-PCR) taken on February 3 and 4.

However, the joke we often hear is that the “rise” – mostly asymptomatic — is due to the increasing number of city residents who undergo swab tests.  No test, no case.

Levity aside, you must have heard American virologist Dr. Keith Moran stressing on YouTube that the  asymptomatic patients – specifically those without flu-like symptoms —  tend to heal because they have sufficient antibodies in their blood that ward off viruses before they could turn infectious. In short, a strong immune system could be our best defense against Covid-19.

To boost immunity, we need to prepare nutritious meals or patronize clean restaurants for that matter, as I do whenever my pocket allows.

Bars and restaurants deserve our patronage; they are among the most hard-hit by off-and-on lockdowns. Until now, we have to be seated one seat apart thereat, thus slashing their patronage by 50%.

I am reminded of the time I asked ten relatives and friends to lunch at Farm to Table Restaurant the Megaworld. One of them used to own a restaurant named Our Place, a stone’s throw away from the Central Philippine University.

Over lunch, the guy lamented his family’s financial loss. Since Our Place was hardly surviving on student meals and the students had to school away from school – online, that is – they had no alternative but say goodbye.

Anyway, it’s hard to imagine restaurant owners going hungry.  Indeed some of them have also gone online – taking home-delivery orders by phone — just to survive, not to level up.

Was it not the mayor himself who campaigned on the platform of leveling up the city?  He had been succeeding until “Covido” came along.  Intermittent quarantines and restrictions better known by their initials – GCQ, ECQ, MGCQ and MECQ – have bankrupted entrepreneurs and abolished  jobs.

Couldn’t Iloilo City have struck a balance between business survival and government-imposed protocols? Couldn’t we have kept shops and eateries open while observing health protocols? On the factual basis of coronavirus being transferable only by droplets, does killing the goose that lays the golden eggs make sense?

In fairness to the mayor, however, his family – who owns a chain of bakeries and restaurants — must have also suffered from reversals in their bakery and restaurant enterprises. We can only assume that he has no choice but abide by impositions dictated by the Manila-based Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF).

Don’t you agree, migo Jeck?

 

ANTI-PILFERAGE CAMPAIGN STILL IN FULL SWING

THE anti-pilferage drive of MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) in Iloilo City did not end with the “Jumper mo, Noche Buena Ko” launch last Christmas.

It has remained in full swing, according to company PR man Jonathan Cabrera.  This means that anybody who can pinpoint at least five power thieves or resellers is entitled to a reward of three thousand pesos.

MORE Power Corp. has intercepted at least 10,000 power pilferers, consequently transforming them into paying customers under its “More Konek” program spearheaded by our friend, Ariel “Aye” Castañeda.

As conceived by MORE President Roel Castro, the program reaches out mainly to informal settlers who are classified as low-load consumers.

Applicants are only required to present the accomplished application form, government-issued identification card, barangay certificate of residency, permit for temporary service connection with electrical plan and vicinity, and oath undertaking for informal settlers.

From 65,000 paying customers, MORE Power has expanded into 10,000 in all 180 barangays.

The company will mark the 2^nd anniversary of the law RA 11212 on Valentines Day come February 14. Signed by Pres. Duterte on that day in 2019, it granted to the new company the exclusive franchise to distribute electricity in Iloilo City in the next 25 years.

Congrats!