EDITORIAL - Grim reminders

For those of us who think we are now in the clear in this global pandemic, there are two events that should remind us this is not the case yet.

The first event is the mass infection inside a bank here. According to reports, a Cebu City bank had to close after 12 of its employees tested positive for COVID-19.

We have to assume that the bank management is familiar with safeguarding its employees against the coronavirus --who isn’t by now? It has been drilled into our heads since March when the lockdowns began. But somehow, their personnel still got infected and are now among Cebu City’s active coronavirus cases.

This should remind us that the consequences for dropping our guard are dire at this time. Countries and cities that rushed to normalize their operations too quickly paid the price for it, and we should learn from their lessons before we rush headlong into getting things back on track.

The second event is the suspension of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca of clinical trials of their most promising vaccine. This after one of the participants of their trials started getting an unexplained illness.

Just to be sure, no one is saying that the vaccine caused the unexplained illness. AstraZeneca even said they are confident they will be able to continue with testing soon.

However, this should remind us that despite what the optimists shout from the rooftops, a viable vaccine against the coronavirus that is safe for all will not be easy to come by. Or quick to come by for that matter. Any vaccine that should work will take a lot of effort and time to develop, and we should expect speed bumps and even dead ends along the way.

Why do we choose to highlight these two events and their implications? We are doing so because given what is happening around us it is becoming very easy for us to forget that there is still a pandemic going on and that the threat of catching the coronavirus is still a possibility. This is still true even as the numbers go down, even as you see less and less people in their deathbeds, and even more and more people going outside.

We should also be reminded that any action we take to secure ourselves and our loved ones will be a more potent weapon against the virus, compared to a vaccine that will take some time to come.