Take COVID-19 seriously
THE EDITOR, Madam:
PERSONS IN this country do not take COVID-19 seriously, apparently because they are under the grave delusion that the virus is little more than just a very bad flu for whomever is unlucky to contract it. Well, from the perspective of someone who had to be rushed to the National Chest Hospital just over two weeks ago (having very badly sunk during self-isolation) and who has been tethered to oxygen lines and several drips since then with inflamed lungs and kidney damage caused by severe dehydration, and who is now on a cocktail of steroids, antibiotics, bronchodilators, painkillers, fever reducers, stomach drugs, prescription probiotics, blood thinner injections and other drugs to regulate my blood pressure and sugar levels, and who has seen at least seven patients die so far while here on the ward, much to the great emotional distress of the heavily rotated healthcare staff, COVID-19 is not merely a bad flu.
The lucky ones will sail through COVID-19 with nary a care for themselves nor for the well-being of those whom they recklessly, selfishly infect. However, for others such as myself, COVID-19 is like a Formula One freight train that goes from zero to 100 in a split second. COVID-19 is no joke. Make no mistake about it.
We should be embarrassed as a people that we fell from a place of being globally lauded for having one of the lowest COVID-19 curves in the world to a place where our daily infection rate was recently reported as the second-highest in the world.
The Government also is not to be absolved of its impotence in enforcing the social-distancing regulations intended to protect us from each other. Arrests and fines clearly are not effective for curtailing prohibited gatherings and, in fact, close physical detainment only exacerbates an already bad situation and places our law officers at unnecessary risk.
Reflecting on the care I have received during the just over two weeks I have been at the National Chest Hospital, I am hands down in awe of healthcare workers as, through layman observations from bed nine of COVID-19 Isolation Ward D, I can categorically declare that work in public healthcare is no less than physically and emotionally arduous. It takes a very stout heart to do healthcare work and often at great personal sacrifice. I salute each and every public healthcare worker in this country, but in particular those of the COVID-19 isolation wards of the National Chest Hospital who, in spite of the many stresses concomitant with managing the care of COVID-19 patients, still deliver care with no less than absolute dedication, kindness and, most important, respect for the dignity of the patient.
RICARDO F. CHUNG Attorney-At-Law ricardo.chung@aegislawoffice.com