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TURNING POINT: Enough is Enough

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NAAWAN, Misamis Oriental (MindaNews / 06 January) — Unlike the threat of the approaching typhoon Odette that terrified and forced the people to scamper to safety, the threat of Omicron that loomed in the air during the holiday season did not scare the Filipino a bit. Multitude swamped the malls, bus and airport terminals, public parks and private resorts tugging children and the elderly. Parties were held and people danced gaily in the streets to welcome 2022. It appears everyone is unmindful of the lingering Delta or didn’t give a damn to the alarming Omicron.

The people are visibly tired of the virus, and are shrugging it off to reclaim their lives.

Omicron, the latest variant of SARS-Cov-2, that raged in Europe and the US in awesome devastating speed, leaving trails of infection cases from 100,000 -350,000/day here and there, has definitely reached our shores.

It  is already around us, which would explain the sky-leap of infection cases from 168 on December 21, the lowest ever in 2021, to 5,434  on January 4, and rocketed to 10,775, the following day.

How are we to respond to the impending calamity?

The truth is government and citizens are tired of the virus and the past response to it. The lockdown measure was disastrous to the economy and to the people’s way of life. The goal need no longer be to stop the virus, to flatten the curb, so to speak, but to adapt its presence in our lives. For the meantime, while it is still raging, let’s continue observing the established health protocols.

But enough is enough. Let us not allow the virus to control and incapacitate us.

Let us go on with life. Let us go back to work, to school and elsewhere and do what we used to. The virus is here to stay. It will reach its peak in harassing us and its impact on human lives but will soon slow down and lose much of its sting over time, similar to a raging typhoon or hurricane.

SARS-Cov-2 will remain with us, but I believe we will, eventually, be able to live with it like the way we have lived with   the flu and the cold virus since our birth.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. William R. Adan, Ph.D., is retired professor and former chancellor of Mindanao State University at Naawan, Misamis Oriental, Philippines.)

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