Scaredy-cats?

By Renato Tibon

“What I am scared about is the loss of reason and wave of fear that has induced the masses of society into a spellbinding spiral of panic, stockpiling obscene quantities of anything that could fill a bomb shelter adequately in a post-apocalyptic world.” – Abdu Sharkawy, blogger

CHILDREN typically cower and scream watching horror movies, but since they don’t have preconceived notions about death or the afterlife, I don’t know that in real life they could be scared out of their wits by adult intimidation and wielding discipline with warnings of impending apocalypse and going to hell. Perhaps, the latter’s tolerance of playful pranks during Halloween is a mitigation of primordial anxiety to mask their own hidden fears of the unknown, no matter that they have Christian upbringings. Fear and anxiety of getting sick and dying among adults are real and we are scared stiff about being ill-prepared and unable to handle any emergency.

Today, no thanks to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) threat, we’re like scaredy-cats anxiously wearing face masks to protect ourselves because we were told the virus was airborne, and yet even if authorities advised us otherwise, we continue to wear one continually, feeling safe albeit looking silly behind it. Worse, some degenerate individuals stockpile every available mask they can lay their wicked hands on depriving people and especially health workers who are in most need of them. Some enterprising ones taking advantage of the rush sell those scarce masks at exorbitant prices making windfalls out of people’s ignorance. We dread touching anything that we suspect has probably made contact with suspected carriers of the dreaded virus giving ideas to those with evil minds to hoard toilet papers and alcohol making them temporarily inaccessible in the market for their nefarious intentions. 

We are likewise perturbed when walking alongside or mingling in a crowd which could have Chinese people suddenly sneezing or displaying suspicious symptoms. In Italy, a country presently in a lockdown due to an increasing number of victims, anyone suspected of Asian origins is shunted away with some citizens reportedly becoming violent to Filipinos who are Chinese-looking. It’s a social stigma unfairly cast upon vulnerable people. A friend posted on Facebook that they’re about to take a seat in a fast food joint but they scooted out pronto as soon as they heard somebody coughing conspicuously while lining up in the counter. 

“Do not do that,” said PRRD, “there are Chinese as there are Filipinos in China also affected. So ’yung irresponsible reporting as if we are blaming everything against the Chinese, it should not be the case.” It’s creating a neurotic disorder, not seen since the last plague that afflicted mankind. Aren’t we overacting to the point of paranoia and irrationality? We are creating panic of something we don’t have full knowledge about to the detriment of our family and society. We are scaredy-cats, fearful, alarmist, paranoid. Some are already suggesting to put Metro Manila on lockdown after the rise in confirmed Covid-19 cases. Some local government units while putting in place contingency plans to deal with a possible outbreak is not even keen about disposing of garbage, including dead animals flattened and reduced to smithereens by unconcerned vehicles and we inhale those clouds of dust, for heaven’s sake. 

As I write this, there are reportedly 33 patients under investigation (PUI) around the country, even as Northern Mindanao remains to be one of the regions in the country with zero cases of the coronavirus disease. With more testing kits available, expect the list to come out and grow as the longer incubation period reveals more persons affected even those who have no travel history. From its source in China, it was found that certain people are at higher risk especially older people and those with serious chronic medical conditions like diabetes, heart and lung disease. If it’s any consolation, there’s only a small percentage of children who fell ill while many have recovered well with patient care. 

The thing is we don’t have to panic and instead try to gain as much knowledge about the disease, how they are transmitted, prevented and treated. We’re told the virus spreads when near a sick person as droplets can enter the mouth, eyes or nose; thus we can choose to keep our distance or we can give them face mask to use instead of us wearing them. It’s also advisable to avoid crowds as those infected may not show symptoms and to wash our hands frequently or use alcohol as we can get the virus from contacts with doorknobs, digital devices, stairways and other everyday things we handle and even from the outer parts of the face mask we are using.    

But trust Filipinos to make light of the situation despite the real risks we face such as the one on FB which advises women to avoid touching men, that’s mouth, eyes, and nose which have orifices where those frigging viruses can pass through and afflict internal organs. There’s no problem with getting the virus from handling cash since most of us don’t have that much to count anyway. Our last paycheck barely met those deductions and if it could speak, all we’ve heard it say is “goodbye, at least the virus can’t touch you.” 

The disease is changing the way of life we’ve grown used to even curtailing our movements from place to place. It’s affecting our jobs, our relationships but even with no end or cure in sight, let’s think positive and pray it does not take root in our lands.