Embarrassing and frustrating

“The pandemic has been such an awful time for so many people around the world, but it has also been a reminder for us about the things that really matter - the people in our lives and the love we have for them.”

—ANANYA BIRLA

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

IT is embarrassing to admit that instead of seeing many New Yorkers slowly lifting the mask mandate entering the third quarter of 2021, we are now once again being mandated to wear masks now that the highly contagious Delta variant has fueled a surge of COVID-19 cases around the world, including here in New York where the numbers are creeping up.

Only weeks earlier, we thought we would be seeing the days when we could finally freely roam around the Big Apple without the need to wear a mask (In my case I have been wearing a mask in public even if I have completed my Pfizer vaccination two months ago).

We were wrong. The pandemic has continued to shortchange us sadly.

According to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, New York’s positive infection rate over the weekend was 1.51 percent, continuing its rise from 1.02 percent a week earlier and 0.63 percent two weeks earlier, 

New York City had a 1.3 percent positive infection rate, with 1.88 percent of COVID-19 tests coming back positive on Staten Island.

Everyone older than age two, regardless of vaccination status, are being required to wear masks when schools reopen in the fall, according to updated guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics (APP) released July 19.

 

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Mask guidelines are also changing in some popular tourist destinations because of the spike in cases. Also a mask mandate has been re-issued in Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, where a big boxing match between Manny Pacquiao, 42, and Errol Spence Jr, 31, would be held next month, was recommending masks indoors for the vaccinated and unvaccinated.

NYC Councilman and Health Committee Chair Mark Levine said the city or state Health Department should follow the lead of other parts of the country.

“It presents a new challenge for us and it probably means all of us even those who are vaccinated need to be a little more cautious, including wearing our mask in crowded indoor venues,” said Levine. “Having an honor system where people wear it if they want to, it’s not working. You see the number of people wearing masks go down.”

Hot spots were resurfacing in states with low vaccination rates.

Former FDA commissioner Doctor Scott Gottlieb, who sits on the board of Pfizer, appeared on Face the Nation July 18 and reminded Americans a final push in prevention is getting vaccinated.

“This virus is so contagious, this variant is so contagious, that it will infect a majority,” he said. 

“Most people will either get vaccinated, or have been previously infected or will get this Delta variant, and for those who get this Delta variant it will be the most serious virus they get in their lifetime, in terms of the risk of putting them in the hospital.”

Doctor Gottlieb said there’s an epidemic of the unvaccinated, which means it’s prudent for everyone to take precautions like wearing a high-quality mask, especially if you’re vulnerable.

 

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The city continues to focus on education and outreach. 

Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was not considering a mask mandate, but will continue to watch the data. 

Health experts say even if you’re vaccinated and want an added layer of protection, wear a mask.

Meanwhile, APP, the leading national pediatrician group said it recommends universal masking because so much of the student population isn't yet eligible for vaccination.

It's not clear how quickly that will change, or how likely parents will be to get their younger children dosed when the federal government approves shots for kids under 12.Research consistently shows opening schools in person doesn't generally increase community COVID transmission when masks and other protocol are employed, AAP says, and the emergence of more contagious variants, some of which are linked to more severe outcomes, poses a particular threat to people who aren't vaccinated.

 

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THE TRUE STATE OF THE PHILIPPINES. John F. Kennedy once said, “A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."

Most of those who are in power—President, vice president, senators, congressmen, governors, mayors (and even some barangay captains) are billionaires and millionaires who don't live a frugal life; they are not role models for the hoi polloi;

Graft and corruption has depleted our resources and we have become the object of derision and unsavory spiels by observers from other countries. No corrupt public official has been jailed or shot in public;

Poverty, unemployment, overpopulation, ignorance have spawned more social maladies such as squatter, child and adult prostitution, criminality, drug addiction, suicide, insanity, cult fanaticism, religious dogmatism, poor sanitation and garbage disposal, among other serious health and environmental problems;  

"Pork barrel" will not be eliminated. Politicians will swim and sink with this budgetary cellulite, the biggest source of their moolah to sustain their extra-curricular activities outside the marital bed and after office hours;

Women and children are still being exploited in labor, whorehouses, film, and in other salacious and prurient activities in the name of livelihood and economic buildup;

Criminal elements—those involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping-for-ransom, human trafficking for prostitution and labor, holdup and hulidup,  gambling, akyat bahay, gangsterism, street mugging and mulcting, begging syndicates—are making a pile and are not neutralized. Many of them enjoy protection from corrupt policemen.

There is a culture of impunity. Killing of activists, labor leaders, and crusading journalists has continued unabated owing to the failure of authorities to solve one murder after another. No efforts from the higher authority to run after and prosecute the perpetrators who are mostly hired killers.

We are still being bullied by China and other neighboring countries that are numerically and militarily superior; and our unguarded islets and territorial waters are being invaded one after the other.

Our overseas Filipino workers (OFW) continued to be enslaved by exploitative and heartless employers in cahoots with unscrupulous agencies that hired them. Many of them live under sub-human conditions, receive paltry sum for their salary, and are treated shabbily if not raped and maltreated by sadistic bosses and malicious embassy consuls.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)