Tag: public health

The Philippines was a crisis waiting to happen even before COVID-19 struck

April 7, 2021April 7, 2021 Ilda 12 Comments

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed humankind’s long-ignored exposure to the risk of virulent diseases running wild and severely impacting the world order. It all but levelled the playing field. People from both rich and poor countries were not spared from the disease’s harmful, and in a lot of cases, deadly effects on the human body….

Development, Society

The Philippine Opposition need to find a SMARTER way of using COVID-19 as an election-winning “issue”

March 22, 2021March 29, 2021 benign0 8 Comments

Following the colossal collapse of their first opening campaign salvo, the ill-fated “1Sambayan” initiative, Filipinos are still holding their breath waiting for the Philippine Opposition’s next major brainwave. So far all we get is the usual noise — the same shrill whining over how the Philippines is coping with the 12-month-old COVID-19 pandemic. That “crisis”…

Government, Politics

Why the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the Philippines is like a typical Manila rush hour experience

March 1, 2021January 4, 2022 benign0 2 Comments

Watching how the COVID-19 vaccine comes available to the Filipino public in recent days reminds me of the state of public transport in the Philippines. The service is inconsistent and unpredictable — all madness and very little semblance of method. Like the variety of buses, jeepneys, and all sorts of mechanical contraptions that clunk along…

Culture, Government, Society

2020 was a shit year for Filipinos, but not necessarily because of COVID-19

December 29, 2020 benign0 7 Comments

I find it interesting that Filipinos are so shocked about how 2020 was such a “shit” year. While it is true that the Philippines is one amongst the worst sufferers of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the country coped badly. After all, we are talking…

Society

Why the rich get access to the COVID-19 vaccine FIRST before the poor

December 15, 2020 benign0 17 Comments

First let’s do the math and take stock of the science. It takes big bucks, and lots of intellectual capital to develop a vaccine — more so to do it at the speed with which companies like Pfizer and Moderna did. Furthermore, the technology and expertise that went into these development efforts weren’t built up…

Economy, Society

Instead of blaming the gov’t for the rise in COVID-19 cases, people should take responsibility for keeping their communities safe

August 3, 2020August 3, 2020 Ilda 37 Comments

I was having a conversation with a friend about the COVID-19 pandemic the other day. I asked him why people around the world, not just in the Philippines, blame their governments for the spread of the virus? I mean, people don’t blame their governments when they get a cold or a flu so why blame…

Society

A grim scenario for the Philippines as the COVID-19 pandemic runs its course

April 14, 2020July 31, 2020 benign0 18 Comments

The scenarios playing out as we move further into uncharted social territory as the COVID-19 pandemic ravages Philippine society seems to be gravitating to just two — worse and worst. The earlier, Worse, is already a known risk today. As social distancing and lockdown periods continue to extend with no end in sight in the…

Lifestyle, Society

Social distancing may have to be a permanent way of life even if we beat the coronavirus

April 13, 2020 benign0 11 Comments

And then what? That is the question that will remain when we finally flatten that curve. The novel coronavirus which causes COVID-19 is being combated by isolating it — and isolating people — to preventing its spread. This is the equivalent of cutting gaps through forests to prevent fires from spreading. The trouble is, that…

Lifestyle, Science