Year-round Incompetence ft. Pandemic fatigue

Year-round Incompetence ft. Pandemic fatigue

by Renz Marion Suarez

More than a year into a pandemic and protracted lockdown, yet situations here in the Philippines are worse off than ever. Dubbed as one of the countries with the longest community quarantine in the world, the Philippines is facing another surge of COVID-19 cases without even flattening the curve of the first wave since the start of the pandemic. The Greater Manila Area (composed of NCR and 4 nearby provinces) is now on Deja vu as the national government through the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) imposed another Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ), the strictest quarantine classification which was last implemented in March 2020. It is another blow to the dwindling economy as businesses that are deemed non-essential are temporarily closed, while establishments offering essential commodities are operating in a limited capacity. Cases are surging particularly in the nation’s capital at an alarming level. As of writing, the Philippines logged 12,576 new cases, the country’s highest recorded daily cases with no backlog since Day 1 of the pandemic. The surge of cases in March 2021 is attributed to the loosened restrictions by the national government to encourage more spending from the public and revive the severely affected economy. The Philippine Statistics Authority reported that the country's Gross Domestic Product shrunk by 9.5% in 2020. Furthermore, Dr. Maria Rosario Vergeire, the health department's spokesperson, blames the increasing daily COVID-19 cases on the complacency of the public who no longer comply with the minimum health standards. After a year into the pandemic, why can’t we still figure our way out? What went wrong? At a glance, if one has to blame someone, it should never be the public but the government’s pandemic response. The new surge of COVID-19 cases in the country can be summed up to two causes: Pandemic Fatigue and New Variants of the virus. After a year of isolation, wearing face masks and face shields, people got tired. Albeit the presence of camouflaged policemen carrying a one-meter stick encouraged the public to comply with the minimum health standards, people broke rules when uniformed personnel were nowhere to be found. The complacency of the public increases their chance of contracting the virus. For example, we often see people pulling their masks beneath the nose and their face shield is on top of their head. As tourist sites gradually open, social gatherings of people of different households almost became a norm. People forgot that we are still in the middle of a pandemic. All of these are symptoms of Pandemic Fatigue. Another factor that worsens our situation is the presence of new variants of COVID-19 particularly the UK variant, which according to experts, is more transmissible or infectious. No wonder why Metro Manila and nearby provinces, aka NCR Plus, are experiencing an unprecedented escalation of cases. However, the problem of pandemic fatigue and virus mutation could have been avoided if, and only if, the government was visionary and had a sense of urgency in its war against an unseen enemy. The Philippines might not have suffered from the peril of COVID-19 if Duterte issued a travel ban on travelers from China upon the detection of the first COVID-19 case. However, the Philippine President has downplayed the virus in the onset of what is now a historic epidemic that has claimed more than 13,000 Filipino lives as of writing. Since the start of the pandemic, the Duterte administration has underscored armed enforcement and punitive measures in containing the virus. Unfortunately, it didn’t work as manifested by the increasing number of cases, deaths, and the return to stricter restriction amid another surge in cases. It has been a year and the public is getting exhausted in complying with all health protocols, but the government is yet to sync its contact tracing system. The availability of hospital beds is at a critical level. Not to mention, testing is not accessible to everyone which makes it harder to isolate patients and contain the virus. While other countries are halfway through their vaccination program, the Philippines has once again fallen short in the inoculation of its population. We are the last country in Southeast Asia to kickstart its vaccination efforts, let alone the slow-moving vaccine rollout. It was also reported that Health Secretary Duque ``dropped the ball" in its negotiation with American drugmaker Pfizer for millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines. The lack of aggressive access to vaccines prolongs the agony of the Filipinos most especially the weary health workers. With the kind of performance of our leaders amid the pandemic, there’s no doubt on why the Philippines scored the lowest among ASEAN countries in terms of pandemic response. There are two things that kill the Filipinos amid the pandemic: the virus itself and the government’s incompetence.