The optimist in me would like to believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is a learning tool being used by Mother Nature to bash in our heads that if a virus won't wipe all of us out, climate change will.
On the other hand, Mother Nature probably has had it with all of us already that She's using whetever means necessary – virus or climate change – to wipe all of us out.
The Pandemic Has Led to a Huge, Global Drop in Air Pollution
The coronavirus pandemic is shutting down industrial activity and temporarily slashing air pollution levels around the world, satellite imagery from the European Space Agency shows.
One expert said the sudden shift represented the “largest-scale experiment ever,” in terms of the reduction of industrial emissions.
Imagine living through the Spanish Flu, which mostly killed the young, and COVID-19, which has been targeting the old.
Still got nothing on Enrile, though.
101-year-old Italian man, born amid Spanish flu pandemic, survives coronavirus illness, official says
Ryan W. Miller, USA TODAY
Published 1:00 p.m. ET Mar. 27, 2020
A 101-year-old Italian man has reportedly survived his battle with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus spreading around the globe.
An official from the city of Rimini on the northeast coast of Italy says the man, identified publicly as only Mr. P., was released from the hospital earlier this week.
"He made it. Mr. P. made it," said Gloria Lisi, vice mayor of Rimini, according to ANSA, the Italian news agency.
"Even at 101 years, the future is not written," she added, per CNN.
Or, why it’s not convincing Luzon is winning the war against COVID-19 at the moment, and probably won't by the end of the enhanced community quarantine.
1. We haven’t done nearly enough testing to know who among regular and poor Filipinos are actually positive with the virus. (But at least we do know who among our self-proclaimed VIPs are diseased. Not just with COVID-19 but with self-importance.)
2. Major hospitals have maxed out their capacities and we aren’t even through with Week 2 yet.
3. People apparently aren’t taking the lockdown seriously. Watching the news every night, you see visuals of people still milling around on the streets as if no superbug exists these days ready to kill them. Even in our vicinity, you would think it was a regular Saturday morning judging by the number of people out there.
4. Furthermore, you seriously believe POGOs have shut down as well? Our area houses numerous Chinese POGO workers who are transported to their offices by company-provided vans. Before the lockdown, these white vans were visible most of the time ether waiting for passengers or dropping them off. Just yesterday, I saw two vans idling near the entrance of one of our buildings. They were probably being used to bring PPEs, masks, and food to our frontliners, no?
5. Why do we have such a high death rate despite having a low testing rate? As of March 28, the Philippine death rate stands at 6.72% (54 dead out of 803 cases), making us the ninth-highest across all countries with more than 10 cases. Higher than China, where this entire mess began (4.05%). Higher than practically all of Southeast Asia (except Indonesia at 8.32%). Thailand has more cases than us but their number of deaths is 11 times lower. And Vietnam, despite having “just” 163 cases, still has 0 deaths.
6. We’re in the dark as to when the curve is expected to flatten. This isn’t an issue unique to the Philippines, though.
7. Doctors are dying everyday. And they weren’t just general practitioners, too. They were specialists, some of whom had vast experience in their respective fields. Dead doctors are just the ones getting the attention on mass and social media. Who knows how many more nurses, lab technicians, and other medical workers have passed away?
9. Red tape. There has been no shortage of donations of PPEs and N95 masks yet apparently these have been piling up because the DOH has been dragging its feet in giving them to hospitals.
10. Koko Pimentel. No resignation. No censure. No tongue-lashing from his colleagues. No criminal cases filed. No jail time.
It's either you won or you lost, dummy. There's no gray area there. Sure, you have to protect every single vote that went your way. But doing so doesn't make you any less of a loser.
Congratulations go out to the variousbikegroups that have successfully lobbied for folding bikes to be allowed in LRT trains.
Now getting to work or any other place will be quicker without having to deal much with deadly motor vehicle traffic and even deadlier air pollution. Hooray!
Stand by any busy Metro Manila sidewalk and count how many folding bikes pass by you in a span of one hour. How many do you see? Yup, that's right: close to none!
Having owned bikes since I was 3 and having lived in Metro Manila my whole life, let me say with confidence that most bikes in my beloved metropolis will fall under only one of these types: BMX, mountain bike and road bike.
Folding bikes aren't just uncommon in these parts, they're a rarity.
If the purpose of letting bikes on trains is to reap all the benefits of a "hybrid lifestyle", then why is the vast majority of bike owners left out in the cold? Do the LRT and the cycling groups expect everyone to shell out thousands of pesos like Pia Cayetano just so we can buy a new folding bike? What about blue-collared workers who rely on their modified BMX's to get to their jobs at factories or construction sites? No hybrid lifestyle for them, too, huh?
While it's not hard to see why folding bikes get preferential treatment, it won't be easy to understand if this is the end-all be-all of things. Here's something to ponder over, LRT -- if foldables can get in for free, how about I pay half my fare for my non-foldable racer?
Joey Salceda says interesting things sometimes. He had one last night on ANC. He said for every person who dies in a typhoon or any natural calamity, Malacañang and the local government should pool funds and give the family of that person P1 million.
For a Gloria flunky, that suggestion's real sensible.
He could have gone further, though. If a government official is revealed to have splurged the way the awesomely gallant Martin Romualdez did at Le Cirque (yes, even if it was his own[???] money), he will have to shell out double the amount for relief and rehabilitation efforts of calamity-hit areas. And it doesn't matter if that official is not a representative or a resident of the that area -- he still has to provide assistance whether he likes it or not. Also, it will have to be lump sum, not in tranches.
So the next time Romualdez sucks up to Gloria by buying her a $20,000 dinner in New York, he will have to fork over 2 million pesos to the victims of the next Ondoy.
Hey congressman, that's a fair deal. Lamon kayo ulit sa New York, dali!
Sabagay mukhang kulang nga ang "double" sa "double talk" kung si Gloria ang pag-uusapan. Kaya siguro kelangan niya ng anim na spokespersons.
Sabi ni spokesperson no. 1 Eduardo Ermita, yung dalawang new kids on the block eh magiging "spokespersons on economic matters". Kasi raw baka isipin ng mga tao niloloko lang sila kung ang mga magsasalita tungkol sa economy eh hindi naman galing sa field of economics.
Pero di ba ekonomista si Gloria mismo, and a "pretty good" one at that? So bakit niya kelangan ng hindi isa, kundi dalawang economic spokespersons? Hindi na ba siya magaling na ekonomista? At nababawasan na ba ang galing niya sa panloloko?
Raindrops keep fallin' on my head And just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed Nothin' seems to fit Those raindrops are fallin' on my head, they keep fallin'
So I just did me some talkin' to the sun And I said I didn't like the way he got things done Sleepin' on the job Those raindrops are fallin' on my head, they keep fallin'
But there's one thing I know The blues they send to meet me won't defeat me It won't be long till happiness steps up to greet me
Raindrops keep fallin' on my head But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red Cryin's not for me 'Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin' Because I'm free Nothin's worryin' me
[trumpet]
It won't be long till happiness steps up to greet me
Raindrops keep fallin' on my head But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red Cryin's not for me 'Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin' Because I'm free Nothin's worryin' me
