Nuance and reason needed

Some things you need to learn about the coronavirus pandemic perhaps you can learn by watching the film series “Zombieland”. I said that early last year. Well, last night I watched “Zombieland: Double Tap' (2019) again on Netflix, and a character’s line goes: "There's something going on out there... about this new kind of zombie that's stronger and faster and deadlier and better adapted to the hunt."

Thankfully, no study has yet indicated that emerging variants of SARS-COV-2 are deadlier. It would not serve a virus to become deadlier as it mutates; if people die or get too sick quickly from it, then it won’t be able to infect more people. Unfortunately, others get it so bad and the new variants have been found to be indeed better adapted to infect cells and spread faster.

Should we be afraid of these new developments? Or should we just by and large forget about it and just get on with our lives with some masking and distancing here and there?

I’ve been hearing people saying they are sick and tired of this pandemic. Perhaps, that explains the current sustained triple-digit COVID-19 case count in Cebu City and the rest of the island since January. I try to hide my disgust when people pull their mask down to their chin when they talk, or when they seem taken aback when I take a few steps farther to keep a safe distance from them. Many people are content with an appearance of compliance, not realizing that subtle deviations from protocols can spell a difference.

If there is one thing the COVID pandemic is trying to teach us in these uncertain times, it is to be nuanced and reasonable in our actions and our thinking; to seek to understand the nuances of events, nature and people.

Alas, a time of great crisis or uncertainty ironically has the tendency to stir emotions and bring out all kinds of thoughts at the extreme end of a spectrum – ranging from denialism to “conspiracism”. Unfortunately, one’s fixation for or against an ideology or political spectrum, or being swept by one's emotions, prejudices and biases, are openings for the unforgiving scientific laws of nature to unleash its consequences.

Nuance and reason are our best weapons in this crisis. But if you find reason to be a burden and instinctively just point your fingers at anyone or anything according to your own fancy during this difficult time, then good luck in dealing with this crisis, as well as other problems old and new, and those more to come with climate change.

Talking of old problems, here’s one example of nuance and reason disregarded. Tired of dealing with the communist insurgency problem? Unleash the brute force of the police and military. Plant evidence, human rights be damned. Red-tag leftists and human rights advocates regardless of shades of affiliation, they are all the same ilk in a grand conspiracy to grab power and impose their ideology, you’d say. Throw nuanced analysis of the root causes of rebellion and dissent out of the window.

In a most recent event in Cebu, a ‘rescue’ operation for Lumad children at a retreat house in USC Talamban turned into a public relations nightmare for the government. Why? Because a sensible and nuanced response to a still unverified complaint from “Lumad parents” was not considered. State agents instead saw a sensational opportunity to prove a political yet tenuous point: that Lumad children are being indoctrinated and trained as “child warriors”. Yet the police failed to prove anything in that operation, except their ineptitude and impetuosity.

Contextual nuances are highly challenging for hateful people. We’ve heard these lines before. “God, I hate drugs! I hate communists! I hate corruption! I hate COVID!”

Where are we now with all this hate? An insurgency problem that had been sidelined for years post-EDSA is back in the limelight, fostering anger and resentment from all sides and shades of the social spectrum. Occasionally, we do see a lineup of “NPA surrenderees” with covered faces and large bellies. Speaking of large, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) budget is large.

On the COVID-19 pandemic, we have the second-worst response versus the virus pandemic in Southeast Asia, ranking 79th out of 98 countries according to a Lowy Institute study. Social distancing and lockdown policies are in place but there are still many gaps in the communication and implementation of those policies.