If you'll extend it, make it worthwhile this time

Spanish Flu 1918

Unlike the previous quarantine deadlines when we all kinda saw the extensions coming, this one set until the 15th of this month feels like the government will start to gradually ease some of the restrictions placed. Like how they are now preparing the MRT and LRT for social distancing measures by implementing new passenger protocols. They are also looking into normalizing government operations and allowing key sectors such as BPO, manufacturing, including small businesses like restaurants and retail to operate. From ECQ (Enhanced Community Quarantine), they will implement GCQ (General Community Quarantine) with more relaxed measures and to tell you honestly, just the thought of people going back unsettles me.

In my understanding, the previous extensions were done to flatten the curve, or basically to slow down the spread of infection. Currently, we have already reached more than 10,000 confirmed cases. How some underestimate the possibility of the second wave baffles me, especially when we still fall short in giving mass testing and medical attention to COVID patients. While the number of recovery increases, we aren’t seeing a downtrend in the number of cases.

Our neighbors have already flattened the curve.

Some people said they can’t wait for the lockdown to be lifted, as if lifting the restrictions meant that the pandemic is over. Newsflash: It’s far from over, and I’m not being a worrywart. The dread of the second and third wave threatens us.

I have been reading about the Spanish Flu, a pandemic that infected one-third of the planet’s population in 1918. During that time in the United States, quarantines were also imposed, people were asked to stay indoors, they closed down places frequented by the public and ordered citizens to wear face masks⁠ — very much like what we’re having now. But because social distancing was eased too soon, many people who resumed their normal routines got infected and died within the next days and weeks. By all accounts, it was the second wave of the Spanish Flu that’s the more devastating.

Right now, a local news website is conducting an online poll after the Metro Manila mayors call for another 15-day extension on the ECQ after the 15th. There were mixed reactions: some agree — even suggesting a total and longer lockdown. They said, if we loosen public restrictions we can be certain that there will be a further increase in the cases. This would waste the two-month lockdown we all have endured together. However, there are others who say that it’s imperative for them to go back to work already because they have mouths to feed. Understandably, when one’s hungry, he or she will take the gamble of possibly dying from the disease. 

It’s really a confusing time to be in; I understand both points that choosing a side is too difficult.     

Here is what I know: More than just extending the lockdown and to force people into staying home, the government should find ways to do mass testing, or do something to improve our public health infrastructure in general. In a crisis, it’s not always prevention that solves the problem, but more about taking action. I’m sick how some always blame the people going out in the spread of the virus, when in fact it was ineffective leadership that brought us all here. Their failure to proactively address the issue was the reason this virus has spread — referring to how this government did not place restrictions at the very beginning of this crisis (just because they don’t want to offend China). As Vietnam had put it, “fighting the epidemic is like fighting against the enemy” and they did this by protecting themselves against a foreign disease as if it was a foreign invader. But then again, it’s too late for that, for we have to do something based on our current situation.

How long will they restrict people’s movement before they realize that in a crisis like this, it’s the collective action that will flatten the curve? A quarantine without an effective public health measure is pointless. The government can lock us all up for as long as they want but if they don’t do something to effectively diagnose, treat and control the virus then it will take very long for us to win this war.