Danger zone

“It’s

not just an exhausted health care capacity we are possibly facing, but an exhausted capacity to draw up better plans of action.

After avoiding it for some time, I went through Facebook once more this weekend to connect with those who took the time to greet me on my second pandemic birthday.

I had not scrolled through FB as much as I used to when I got a little troubled seeing the sadness and frustration being shared across

platforms.

There were upbeat ones — negating Covid-19 fears with positive vibes. But at some point, I realized I was clicking the care and sad emojis too much. People were sick, asking for prayers or saying goodbye.

I still remember how social media seemed like a lifeline last year when the pandemic was so new. We could check up on one another through this “highway” and feel less alone in the quarantine that we all thought would probably take just a few months.

And now I see so much sorrow and pain. People we know are dying, people in our midst, people in our spheres — and it feels like the virus is an army of deadly warriors approaching, closer and closer.

Covid-19, they say, is nothing to be afraid of. Experts say there will come a time when it will be like the flu, which had, at some point in history, also taken millions of lives at a time when it was as novel as the coronavirus attacking us now.

Also, doctors and nurses have already gained more clinical experience to treat infections better — it can be treated, yes, and, of course, the vaccines are coming.

But we are here now. We are not “there” yet.

We are at that uphill battle where the knowledge we have gained turns useless against reality.

We say treatment is possible, for one, but treatment spaces are lacking.

So, we set up the tents and alternative areas to house patients, but the health care personnel are lacking.

We keep reminding people to do their part and follow the very basic health protocols, but we have rule-breakers in the leadership and stubborn people ignoring calls to their conscience — and the discipline is lacking.

We say we want to stem transmission and impose and reimpose quarantines, calling it a variety of names and titles, but we lack a proper plan to ensure the lockdowns would have been worth it.

At this very moment, as I write this, I am reeling from the emotion that met my eyes as I scrolled through Twitter. People are snide, cynical, angry. Are we all alone, they ask. What’s going on?

What is going on is worrisome. An official from the World Health Organization (WHO) recently noted

that the Philippines is reaching a critical point — a “red line” in which the rising daily cases could mean a health care sector incapable of serving all of the people’s needs.

Dr. Takeshi Kasai, WHO’s director for the Western Pacific Region, named several factors for the ongoing spike in coronavirus infections around the world: “presence of variants of concern, noncompliance to minimum public health standards, increased mobility for nonessential gatherings, and movement of unsuspecting asymptomatic patients in their 20s to 40s as contributing factors to the surge.”

He also mentioned “vaccine optimism or complacency after vaccination that leads to spikes in cases” in other countries.

For the Philippines, he suggested improving our health care capacity, strengthen contact tracing and for business owners to “think of ways to minimize risk of transmission in workplaces.”

People want a return to normalcy as other countries have already begun to do. What frustrates us to the core is how it feels like we are still flailing in the dark, like the blind leading blind.

It’s not just an exhausted health care capacity we are possibly facing, but an exhausted capacity to draw up better plans of action.

When we run out of ideas or confidence or, heaven forbid, hope — that is the real danger zone.

“We

are at that uphill battle where the knowledge we have gained turns useless against reality.