Updates on COVID-19 – Part 4

By Engr. Edgar Mana-ay

 

Despite the frantic preparations by the Department of Education (DepEd) led by Secretary Leonor Briones, there are still a lot of misgivings as to whether we should re-open classes by end-August.

Israel will AGAIN open schools by September but a US-trained family physician with specialties in research and global health from the Sackler Medical School in Tel Aviv Israel University also has her doubts.

A mother of four young children, Dr. Roth has written the Israel Ministry of Education arguing that schools cannot be safely re-opened IF COVID-19 remains widespread. In order to re-open schools, the hard truth is that the virus needs to be under control in the community first. The gist of her arguments are as follows:

 

1. COVID-19 affects kids. Fewer children have died from COVID-19 than adults for reasons we yet do not know. Since COVID-19 is new, we have no idea what the future holds for kids who contract the virus and are either asymptomatic or recover uneventfully. While it is still thought that the younger the child, the less likely to contract and spread the virus, by grade school, that distinction becomes less relevant.
2. The virus is airborne. (Refer to my July 27 Daily Guardian column, that the World Health Organization or WHO is seriously considering this). This means that it travels in tiny infectious particles in the air we inhale. It moves thru rooms, aircon systems, elevators. This is why closed rooms with multiple people are breeding ground for COVID-19. Masks can help if they seal the nose and mouth but face shield and plexiglass do little or nothing against a virus in the air. Even the famous 2-meter distancing is of lesser consequence when a group shares the same air.
3. Herd immunity is not possible. At this point, while being anti-body positive does seem to provide some protection against re-infection, the immunity lasts 3 to 6 months only and then wanes. Even in areas with the highest percentage of the population infected such as Sweden (14-20% anti-bodies) and New York (25%), have fallen short of herd immunity. God willing, a vaccine that is safe and long-lasting will be developed, but it will not be ready for school opening. (Refer to my TDG June 15 column; Herd Immunity is an idea that when a threshold proportion of the population is immune to a certain pathogen, this protects even non-immune individuals against the infection by limiting the spread.)

 

Acting as if we can simply return the children to their previous classroom experience is wish full thinking. Coronavirus infections require what Japan calls the three Cs: confined spaces. crowded places and close contact. (Come to think of it, why should the government prohibit especially the elderly from walking/exercising in the plaza/promenade, which are open spaces, for in so doing we strengthen our immune system.)

In re-opening schools, Deped should have the means to address the three Cs and also to realize that the virus needs to be under control in the community FIRST. The formula that has allowed schools to open in other countries needs to be followed which is: TEST, TRACE, CONTAIN. We may not be able to build herd immunity, but we can rebuild a healthy community by boosting our immune system to lessen the impact of coronavirus infection.

During this pandemic, another area of concern for the world to watch is the country of Iran. Last week, President Rouhani made an unbelievable announcement that an estimated 25 million Iranians are infected with the coronavirus out of a population of 82 million.

The number is so high to be impossible but it is believed Rouhani choose to inflate the numbers because of the many crises it is facing like the mysterious fire that gutted its nuclear centrifuge production facility, setting back its program to produce a nuclear bomb for another year.

Also, a mysterious explosion at its Natanz missile and ammunition underground depot that destroyed almost all of what is inside it and lately another unexplained explosion at a power station in Isfahan province plus a series of destructive fires at more than ten vital installations. There are also turbulent demonstrations in the Iranian streets because of an increase in prices of basic commodities including gasoline of which Iran is supposed to have in abundance.

But the most striking problem is the steep fall in the value of the Iranian currency, the RIAL. As of January, the rial was 128,000 to the US dollar, and lately, the exchange rate fell to as low as 250,000 rials to $1.

Due to the pandemic, the unemployment rate has skyrocketed, subsidies have been canceled with the inflation rate at 41% leading to a dramatic rise in the price of basic commodities such as rice and poultry. The new generation of poor people in Iran is a fertile ground for instability and the export of terrorism around the globe.

Aside from the pandemic and the debilitating effect of the US economic sanction, one of the major contributors to the economic crisis in Iran is the destructive power struggle between the group of Pres. Rouhani and Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, a commander of Iran Air Force and a top-ranking officer of the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for the next presidential election in May 2021.

It is very abnormal that Iran has not forcefully blamed Israel and the US (its favorite punching bag) for the numerous mysterious fires and explosions that occurred in the last 6 months. Israeli analysts believed most of these mishaps were “inside job” by either of the warring party and these self-inflicted wounds will hasten the demise of an already ailing republic.

We should learn from what is happening in Iran. In times like this (the pandemic has resulted to trillion of pesos of unnecessary, unscheduled and non-productive expense, the loss of billions of income from our overseas workers, the closure of thousands of small and medium businesses, hence increase in unemployment), we have no other option but to fully support and cooperate with the efforts of the government in addressing this pandemic.

Just like Iran, we cannot indulge in destructive activities and criticism just because we are not part of the party in power.

Patriotism calls for self-sacrifice, the swallowing of pride and prejudice from all citizens because of the very grave problems confronting our nation. For according to Jose Ortega y Gasset: “What makes the nation great is not primarily its great men, but the stature of its innumerable mediocre ones.”