Seeing the other side of COVID-19

By Herbert Vego

 

IMAGINE the anxiety that his own followers must have endured when re-electionist United States President Donald Trump checked into the Walter Reed Medical Center early in October due to COVID-19.

Imagine former Vice President Joe Biden, his presidential rival, visualizing the possible consequences of that hospitalization in his favor come election day (November 3).

To his credit, Trump showed no fear while in the hospital. He probably had in mind many other heads of state who had tested COVID-positive but came out to tell survival tales, such as Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, Prince Charles of Wales, Juan Orlando Hernandez of Honduras, Jeanine Anez of Bolivia, Alejandro Giammatei of Guatemala, Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia and Prince Albert II Of Monaco.

And lo, in three days Trump triumphantly returned to the White House, removed his mask and trumpeted, “I think this was a blessing from God that I caught it. This was a blessing in disguise.”

Mentioning a certain brand of intravenous medicine given to him, he added, “I want to get for you what I got. And I’m going to make it free.”

In a sense, he was walking his talk. He was sending the message that the dreaded disease is as curable as flu and pneumonia; that he would not be cowed into hiding by the biggest nation that had spread the “China virus” worldwide.

Biden had faulted Trump for “slow response to the pandemic” that had contaminated millions of Americans. As of yesterday, the United States stood “No. 1” in the COVID-19 list of the World Health Organization (WHO) – with 9,383,739 total number of cases, including 235,897 deaths.

The Philippines is on the 22nd with 380,729 recorded cases, 7,221 of them dead. As admitted by the Department of Health (DOH), some of the COVID-diagnosed fatalities were also suffering from other diseases.

Horrible, yes, but not so when viewed against the nine-month period that the numbers have swelled. Woe unto the WHO for amplifying the horror with daily upward statistics that negate its presumed goal of “flattening the curve”.

Why panic? If we look closely at the 7,221 death toll, it is only 1.9 percent of the 380,729 COVID-19 cases over a nine-month span. The latest declassified records from the Philippine Statistics Office (PSA) show that an average of 1,587 Filipinos die of diseases and other causes daily. Among a population of 110 million, more than 1,500 Filipinos dying daily is normal.

The COVID cases also pale behind the unannounced death statistics from other killer diseases in our country. The DOH records show that in the year 2018, 120,800 Filipinos died of heart diseases, 84,813 of stroke and 75,843 of combined flu and pneumonia.

The internet throbs with various “conspiracy” theories blaming China (COVID’s place of origin) and the WHO for orchestrating coercive protocols and quarantines or lockdowns that would eventually devastate the world economy.

With millions of people losing jobs and their employers declaring bankruptcy, we wonder why we had to close shops when we could have observed the protocols – wearing mask and shield, hand-washing and social-distancing – without locking down.

“Mamamatay kami sa gutom, hindi sa COVID!” cried some wives of job-deprived husbands.

It is a medical truism that hunger could lead to depression. Who would not be depressed thinking of where to get the next meal? Depression could cause diseases more fatal than COVID and could lead the desperate to commit suicide. We have heard of such incidents reported on radio and TV.

There are actually reputable physicians who openly question the pandemic as a “plandemic” beneficial to Big Pharma in the race for a profitable vaccine. A group of European doctors calling themselves World Doctors Alliance, for instance, went viral on social media when they met in Berlin, Germany on October 10 to tell the people that the coronavirus is as curable as the common flu.

Twice in September, unmasked Britons converged at Trafalgar Square in London for their “Resist and Act for Freedom” rally, raising placards declaring Covid-19 a “hoax”.

There are nations that have kept business as usual to preserve a normal way of life. One of them is Belarus in eastern Europe with a population of 9.5 million. Only 700 of its 73,000 confirmed cases have died.

Our neighboring Thailand is where scenes of congested mass actions calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha have unfolded before TV cameras. And yet it moves “slow” on 146th — with only 3,780 cases, including 59 deaths — in the WHO “odometer”.

It’s also business as usual in Taiwan, which promptly banned the entry of mainland Chinese upon learning of warm bodies falling down in Wuhan, China. Taiwan being a non-member of the WHO, its number of cases does not appear in the WHO odometer but was reported in the news to have peaked at only 553 cases, with only seven deaths.

Once seen as the world’s worst COVID hotspot, Italy has slipped to No. 13 thereat. Italy has had more than 38,000 deaths.

We have seen and heard Facebook yarns about the Italians having shifted to either traditional medicine or anti-bacterial antibiotics as their ways to recovery.

It is not our purpose to agree with unproven theories, but it is certainly correct to blame the WHO and our DOH for doing nothing to restore normalcy. We now behave as if everyone we meet were presumed COVID carrier unless proven otherwise through expensive RT-PCR tests.

By the way, since most of our testing kits are imported from China and we are advised to play guinea pigs for their forthcoming vaccine, is that not insult literally added to injury?

 

GOOD NEWS FOR LOW-LOAD POWER CONSUMERS

 

IF you are a resident of Iloilo City who consumes no more than 190 kilowatt hours of electricity every month, MORE Power and Electric Corp. (MORE Power) gives you the option of paying your bills on or not later than December 31, 2020. Disconnection may only be enforced after said date.

 

This is in deference to the advisory from the Energy Regulatory Commission dated October 29, 2020, aimed at alleviating the financial burden of energy users, especially those hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

They are therefore given ample time to recover within the two remaining months of the year.

Another good news is that you may pay your bills online via cell phone, desktop or laptop computer. First, click the link http://payment.morepower.com.ph/ to access your bills and history of payment to MORE Power. Then click “Register Now.” Wait for MORE to e-mail confirmation of your registration.

You may show the confirmation to MORE Power’s extension office at Hotel del Rio in exchange for a beautiful MORE Power coffee mug.

For further information and complaints, you may call landlines 323 6619 and 327 2985, or cell phone 0919 072 0626.