#Timeout 2

President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent declaration of a modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) in Metro Manila and its fringes was a compromise with the health workers who have called for a time-out.

The frontline health workers have asked for a more stringent implementation of an ECQ. A total lockdown, they say, would help arrest the still ballooning number of new coronavirus victims.

We could not agree more to that plea for an ECQ. Sending the people out to work to keep the economy rolling despite the dangers posed by the pandemic has also caused great concerns in other countries.

The Philippines is not immune to COVID-19. There is no such thing as a herd immunity.

Herd protection could not be achieved without sacrificing a big part of the population. Nobody would want a loved one to die.

One death is too many. And herd protection could not be achieved without a vaccine. Medicines helped arrest once prevalent infectious diseases.

Measles, mumps, polio and chickenpox are examples of infectious diseases that were once very common. Vaccines have helped make them rare — rare, not erased.

Without a vaccine, even if many adults have developed immunity because of a prior infection, children could still be vulnerable to infections. So, science and the development of vaccines and medicines are the keys to arresting these diseases.

For health workers, non-contact would do for now in the absence of a vaccine against COVID-19.

Tracing the victims and those they have interacted with is also important. They could be new carriers of the virus, too.

But with some of them out there working and mingling with people, it is no wonder that we have breached more than a hundred thousand victims.

With no cure nor a vaccine, we could not expect this number to stop. But we could apply a break somehow.

Time-out is the answer.

It does not mean that the medical workers — the doctors, nurses and other frontliners — need to stop attending to their patients. Time-out also means that we need to stop exposing ourselves to other people, positive or otherwise, to help stem the contamination.

We could do our share by not going out when it’s not extremely needed. Stay home, that’s the best contribution we could give our frontline workers and this government. It’s the best we can give our families.

President Duterte claims the government no longer has the money to fund the ECQ. We would never know if that line was a joke. We could only hope it was not.

That compromise with the health workers would be enough. He could not turn his back on big business. The risks are higher if he does.

An ECQ is expensive. It has costs.

It would be tasking our policemen and soldiers and the multipliers, who are mostly just volunteers. But some men and women should make the sacrifice.

This pandemic is Mr. Duterte’s “Yolanda,” SAF 44 and the Quirino Grandstand hostage taking combined. This is the test no leader would pray to face.

But the best and worst leaders come out only after they get tested. We should cross our fingers we all cross this COVID-19 bridge unscathed.

President Duterte had tried to balance the economy with the government’s response against the local spread of the pandemic.

Japan did the same for a time, but its leaders failed. Contagion again rose among the Japanese as it did among us.

There is no surefire way to wage this war against the virus. Victory is not in sight.

But if we can only show care for our doctors and nurses, let’s start from there. Because we could not afford to lose them, too.

It’s in this time when we need them most.

“With

no cure nor a vaccine, we could not expect this number to stop. But we could apply a break somehow. Time-out is the answer.

“Sending

the people out to work to keep the economy rolling despite the dangers posed by the pandemic has also caused great concerns in other countries.