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.
