I am one of the tens of millions of Filipinos who do not know the difference between the growing number of COVID variants. And the Department of Health is not helping any by not explaining if the variants make any real and significant difference in the ease or difficulty with which the whole world is battling COVID-19.
Is one variant making the fight more difficult for our health professionals or is another mutant making the fight a walk in the park for them? Is one making the number of deaths rise rapidly or is another responsible for rising recoveries? Is it really that important for Filipinos to keep being told about things they do not understand or should the DOH just bury its head in fighting COVID without much talking?
For instance, the DOH reported the other day that 382 variants have now been recorded. What does that information mean? Does that mean we start losing sleep and getting panic attacks? Is it the end of the world? COVID is bad enough that its virus cannot be seen, it is worse for DOH to treat us to a swiftly multiplying specter without explaining what exactly it is we are facing.
COVID is COVID regardless of what variant happens to infect a victim. Let us not make things any more complicated and dangerous than it is, especially if, regardless of the variant, there is still pretty little that the DOH can do other than throw in a prayer. Not a single country was prepared for COVID. Each nation tried to do battle with what it had and how best to apply what it had on the most number in the quickest time.
It is never a matter of how many variants but how to neutralize whatever variant comes along. And the countries that best performed against COVID were those countries that talked less and did more. And those that did more did so not because they had much but that they had most of the people behind them. These were people who united behind their government and trusted the leadership.
It was never a matter of resources and expertise. Both mattered little to a newly-emerged disease. The successes, wherever they happened, arose from the character of people, whose true measure never fails to emerge when needed the most, in the most crucial times of a nation, during crises of crippling proportions.
So what if there are two or 382 variants. If one can kill, as it surely has done, why sadistically terrify the people even more by saying there are 382 more. That is one information we can do without. If the DOH wants to showcase its expertise by highlighting its ability to make finer distinctions, please spare the agonizing nation the burden of useless exercise.
Just focus on COVID regardless of its many mutations. When you see North Korean soldiers march, they are really terrifying to watch. You do not pay attention to the fact that they all look essentially alike even if they do not. Then imagine the rampage of something you cannot see. And then DOH goes on the PA to enumerate how the noses differ, or the ears, or whatever.