Covid-19, vaccines, and the environment
Acrucial part of self-care in the time of COVID is to keep up to speed with information--keeping track of the number of cases, deaths, and recoveries; its variants; and the vaccines that have been developed against the virus.
Over the weekend, we learned that there has been a surge of COVID cases--the number hovered above 2,000 last week. The virus continues not only to spread but to evolve, and “variants of concern” have appeared in various places.
Medical experts have warned the public of the need to be more vigilant than ever, especially with the approaching Holy Week and the social mobility that usually comes with it. With the loosening of restrictions, such as the removal of the swab requirement, it falls on our shoulders to be unremittingly watchful.
The bright spot is the arrival of vaccines: Sinovac on Monday, and Pfizer and AstraZeneca hopefully a few days later. With this, we can hope for relief for our senior citizens and health care workers, and avoid overwhelming our health care system.
We in the shipping industry are also hopeful that seafarers will be given the Covid-19 vaccine soon to avoid a crew change crisis.
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has called upon governments not to neglect seafarers and frontline maritime workers as they roll out Covid-19 vaccines, reminding them of the vital role seafarers play in the supply chain.
ICS Secretary General Guy Platten has stated that “Governments must class seafarers as key workers and give them priority access to the vaccine, as the inability to rotate crews from their ships risks the passage of the critical medical materials needed for the global vaccination effort.
“If we want to maintain global trade,” he added, “seafarers must not be put to the back of the vaccine queue. Governments will not be able to inject their citizens without the shipping industry or, most importantly, our seafarers.”
On the other hand, two experts have reminded us not to lose sight of the bigger picture in our rush to fight COVID. James Maskalyk, associate professor in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine and author of Doctor: Heal Thyself, and Dave Courchene, founder of the Turtle Lodge International Centre for Indigenous Education and Wellness, has written in an article in Globe and Mail that “The real cure for COVID is renewing our fractured relationship with the planet.”
If humanity is to endure, they said, “the coming months must hold healing, not just of populations across the globe from the coronavirus, but of the Earth herself. As is true of many zoonoses (diseases that jumped from animals), this virus emerged from the pressure humans put on a global ecosystem.
“A lack of healthy, natural habitat weakens the immune systems of animals and the resulting sicknesses pass rapidly through them. Birds, prairie dogs, pigs, bats. With each infection, a chance for a virus to mutate into one that can sicken humans, and sometimes, global livelihoods. As such, a vaccine alone, no matter how effective, will not tip the balance toward health because Covid-19 is not a disease; it is a symptom of an exhausted planet. The renewal of a healthy relationship to our one shared mother, planet Earth, is the cure.”
It is interesting that ten years ago, the late Filipino poet and environmental advocate Jose Victor Penaranda expressed the same theme on our oneness with nature in a lecture on “Silent Emergency.”
“When we lose respect for Nature,” he said, “we lose respect for life. That’s why societies rationalize with passion the destruction of forests, the pollution of the air, the abuse of rivers and oceans.
Entire civilizations fall into amnesia, completely forgetting that humanity is umbilically linked to Nature, that we belong to the same biosphere, that we share One Life with the universe. Calamities follow the trail of reckless progress. Because we claim not to know any better, we assume the role of bystanders to escape blame and the act of atonement.”
We can no longer escape blame. We can no longer afford to look the other way. We have seen that with humans in lockdown, nature can heal, animals flourish, air quality improves significantly, we even become healthier. Dr. Liji Thomas, a full-time consultant in obstetrics/gynecology, cited a study last year showing that “just two weeks of lockdown, which brought most industries and traffic to a near-complete halt, has resulted in a net reduction of 7,400 premature deaths and 6,600 cases of asthma in children in 27 countries where such measures were in force.”
It must hurt the pride to know that the world can be better without us. But it doesn’t have to be so extreme. We don’t have to be passive and be in lockdown forever to improve the world. By living more mindfully, we can actively build a better world.