“If your oxygen mask drops down, it's time to take a breather!”
—Richard Simmons
By Alex P. Vidal
WE can tolerate the wearing of a mask in public to curtail the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
It’s not only necessary in order to protect others and ourselves, it is also showing cooperation and respect to our fellowmen.
It’s the least we can do while scientists are still trying to discover the vaccine.
In order to defeat the pandemic, we must work as a team; we must show that we are part of the solution, not the problem.
A mask is OK. It isn’t heavy. It is easy to wear when we are in public.
We have been told it’s the easiest and the surest way to stop the spread of coronavirus from one person to another.
But if we will be obligated to wear a face shield on top of the mask effective August 15, it’s too much. It’s a “double jeopardy” to say the least.
It’s like being required to wear two pieces of condom in a sexual intercourse.
It will also embolden some anti-mask characters to further cast doubts or question the “motives” of health officials who only wanted to protect us from the pandemic.
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In fact, it’s already annoying and incoherent on the part of the proponents to suggest that we wear a face shield in public.
The proposal to wear a face shield came up after Philippines health officials noted a spike in the number of COVID-19 infections these past weeks and many places will be placed anew under a modified enhanced community quarantine.
Instead of going down, the number of COVID-19 cases went up.
Even in areas where 99 percent of the people were wearing a mask, the pandemic persisted.
It’s tantamount of saying the mask is useless and ineffective and, therefore, we need a face shield to complete the tango.
What if COVID-19 cases would continue to multiply even after we have worn the annoying face shield?
They will next require the people to wear a helmet?
If that happens, we will end up looking like astronauts wearing helmets on our own planet.
The problem on the spike of coronavirus cases should not be limited to the unproven theory that a mask may not be enough.
It is possible that the coronavirus was able to transfer and spread fast because some people violated the social distancing rules and/or they did not wash their hands properly after being exposed outside their houses.
It is possible that authorities failed miserably in the area of contact tracing and thus asymptomatic people weren’t prevented from infecting others as a result.
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IF heads will not roll in the scandal-ridden Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), people will think that President Rodrigo R. Duterte is not sincere in his promise to cleanse the government with corrupt elements.
Even if nobody has been indicted yet in the alleged estimated P15-billion thievery in the PhilHealth, the degree of scandal is already a whiff of graft and corruption in many aspects.
Filipinos are getting impatient with what is going on in the government. Many people have died in the brutal war against illegal drugs, but no one has been jailed for graft and corruption.
The rapscallions always got away not because they were cleared in court.
They were able to avoid prosecution and jail term because the president always “shielded” them and their shenanigans.
Show us your fangs in the PhilHealth fiasco, Mr. President!
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)
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