Lockdown

I support the Duterte administation’s decision to put Metro Manila in a lockdown. Some of those around him want to call it “community quarantine,” but Duterte himself said it is a lockdown.

Terminology aside, it has been shown that social distancing is the most effective way of slowing down the rate of infection with the coronavirus. That’s something difficult to do with the world’s populations now living in congested cities.

But we have to try. If China imposed a lockdown on Wuhan two weeks before they did, or before Chinese New Year, they might have saved thousands from dying and suffering the consequences of catching the disease.

A very informative article on the web, with plenty of graphs to illustrate current data, makes the urgency of lockdowns pretty clear. That is, unless you have the kind of health system and high quality of political leaders that Singapore and Taiwan have.

For everyone else, it is safe to assume that government is not ready for the emergency. Here is what that article in medium.com by Tomas Pueyo made clear:

“The coronavirus is coming to you.

“It’s coming at an exponential speed: gradually and then suddenly.

“It’s a matter of days. Maybe a week or two.

“When it does, your healthcare system will be overwhelmed.

“Your fellow citizens will be treated in the hallways.

“Exhausted healthcare workers will break down. Some will die.

“They will have to decide which patient gets the oxygen and which one dies.

“The only way to prevent this is social distancing today. Not tomorrow. Today.

“That means keeping as many people home as possible starting now.

“As a politician, community leader or business leader, you have the power and the responsibility to prevent this.

“You might have fears today: What if I overreact? Will people laugh at me? Will they be angry at me? Will I look stupid? Won’t it be better to wait for others to take steps first? Will I hurt the economy too much?

“But in two to four weeks, when the entire world is in lockdown, when the few precious days of social distancing you will have enabled will have saved lives, people won’t criticize you anymore: They will thank you for making the right decision.”

If all that sounds like mere observations from an armchair observer, consider this first hand account from a Filipina Italian living in Milan.

Mickaella Jorgia Bergantino described on Facebook what is happening in the worse hit country in Europe. For ease of reading, I combined the thoughts from her two posts.

“The government closed all shops and malls. Everything except grocery stores and pharmacy.

“We can’t go out without a permit and you need to have a valid reason for it. If not you will be fined 200€ (approximately P10,000) or worse go to jail.

“And I’m telling you that I have been at home for the past three weeks and it is not a good thing because humans need to interact with each other. But because we underestimated the situation, the government made drastic measures for our safety.

“Hospitals are collapsing because of the amount of the infected people.

“The healthcare and hospitals in Italy are free, that’s one of the good things.

“But is it in the Philippines? The answer is no.

“To get proper treatment you would need to spend thousands of pesos.

“You may be able to get yourself treated if you get sick, but think about the people who don’t have the money or even proper information about it.

“We have been there. We didn’t listen. We continued to go out and meet people even though we were told not to. We underestimated the situation.

“And look where we are right now. Ten thousands plus infected and we are forced to stay at home.

“Do not do the same mistakes we did.

“Stay at home while you are not being forced. Do your job as a citizen…

“It doesn’t matter if your plans are or were cancelled. Your life and health are more important.

“Your simple act of obedience can change not just your life, but also for everyone around you. Don’t wait until the situation gets worse forcing the government to make drastic measures (esp earlier how D30 mind works lol).

“Act now.”

She is right. But there are those who say they are young and will take their chances. The problem with that is they may infect a loved one who is older and more prone to suffer the disease more severely.

A large study in China found that about 80 percent of confirmed cases had fairly mild symptoms (defined as no significant infection in the lungs). So maybe, we are overreacting?

However, for older people, the findings of the same study show about 15 percent had severe symptoms that caused significant shortness of breath, low blood oxygen or other lung problems. About five percent of cases were critical, featuring respiratory failure, septic shock or multiple organ problems.

Overall, the coronavirus, according to the WHO, has a mortality rate of 3.4 percent but higher among older people and those with preexisting conditions like heart disease and diabetes.

Given my age, I decided to go into social distancing last week even before the lockdown. I broke it twice to buy a month’s supply of my maintenance prescriptions and then to buy some groceries in the neighborhood Rustan’s.

I think the government is right to impose the lockdown. But the absence of details, the meandering speech of Duterte that told us nothing we didn’t know, didn’t make me feel government is up to the task.

But let us forget Duterte and his fuzzy mind. Do it for yourself and your family. Help your employees comply with the lockdown rules. Follow the containment rules yourself. Do not go out of your house unless you absolutely need to. Protect yourself from this virus and in so doing, protecting your loved ones.

This lockdown is a matter of self-preservation. So, respect it.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco