PRECARIOUS TIMES

By Renato Tibon

“Life balances itself on a precarious ledge, we can stay up high or propel off the ledge.” – Tarryn Fisher, USA Today bestselling author

It breaks my heart pondering how a pernicious virus, presently wreaking havoc on unsuspecting mankind, could mercilessly bring humanity to its knees; that despite the cataclysmic lessons of the past, our modern scientists and expert epidemiologists can still be caught flat-footed helplessly reeling from the onslaught of a “novel” lethal disease which seemingly came out of nowhere.

No one has a definite idea of the virus’s origins except some speculations that it came from an Asian country where some people ate bats, monkeys, snakes and other wild animals that carried the transmissible disease-causing organisms. Those who were infected spread the virus through human contacts fairly easily as people are moved from places to places by modern and faster means of transportation on a global scale.

The pattern found parallelism in the movie Contagionwhich showed the onset and spread of the fatal disease that started with a nasty cough, killing the victims promptly with foams forming on their mouths. Scientists later identified the culprit as coming from fruit-eating bats whose leavings containing the deadly virus were eaten by swine that found its way to markets and kitchens. 

Whether this largely invisible virulent enemy is one of nature’s “accidents with a purpose” to correct and heal itself or if it’s manmade are still conjectures.

Conspiracy theories abound as the origins of the virus are being traced like the one where scientists are experimenting with chemical and biological weapons funded by their host countries to countervail the nuclear threat posed by powerful nations who have them.

Accordingly, these engineered viruses are weaponized to decimate people and reduce a runaway global population that threatens the survival of those in power. these experiments could have gone awry with the virus breaking out accidentally from their laboratories although the pertinacious possibility is the one where animals used as specimens and are still carrying the virus were sold recklessly in public markets that specialize in wild animals. The latter are whetting the appetite of finicky customers who prefer exotic foods. Its popularity may have encouraged consumption by those who have access to them fortuitously causing an outbreak of a new species of lethal virus.

Unlike the previous strain, Hever, the novel coronavirus 2019, now officially named by the World Health Organization as Corona Virus Disease or CoViD-19 afflicting almost all nations, showed a ferocity of replication that resists existing vaccines. There is no cure nor end in sight yet, only gruesome deaths in many places, not sparing even powerful countries and those inured to the good life and yet to the detriment of the poor barred even from viewing the remains of their loved ones who were cremated posthaste to prevent contamination.

The ramifications are dire although in some ways the contagion effect may have contributed to the relative peace now emanating from countries whose hegemonic intent and trajectory may have been put in check as their leaders are singularly focused on arresting the spread of the disease.

Yet it’s hardly reassuring considering as I write this, the Philippine government is on tenterhooks deciding whether to put the entire country on lockdown or national quarantine.

For now, the main capital and many local government units on their own initiatives are on an enhanced community quarantine, restricting movements of people and goods putting every single individual in a precarious case of ensuring their personal survival with the view of the community’s good.

Those who have manifested signs of the disease were identified as Persons Under Investigation (PUIs) while those who came from places identified as infected had to be monitored (PUMs) although most hospitals around the country are hard put to find testing kits and enhance identification and treatment of the sick.

The threat is real as many who refused the test or being listed for monitoring will never be known if they imposed self-quarantine measures or are going around unchecked. Thus the advice of the World Health Organization for safety protocols such as the washing of hands, staying at home and observing social distancing makes sense.

Everyone within a radius of 2 meters will be a suspect despite these measures as those who were asymptomatic were found to be carriers of the disease.

Still disturbing is the fate of ordinary workers, daily-wage earners, laborers, drivers among others who rely on their daily income to weather through the crisis. Will the government come to the rescue? This will be a test of resolve, perseverance, and vision for those tasked with and who made it their lifelong quest helping the sick, the poor and the hungry among us. In my humble ways, I will extend assistance as I encourage others to do the same.

Indeed these are perilous times, putting our faith in mankind and in our ability to rise upon this challenge for survival or risk being thrown off the precarious ledge into oblivion. Someone said that the things that bond and hold us together are only as strong as the faith we have in them. For the religious among us, we have God through His Son Jesus, our Savior as succor and His reassuring love will be enough. For those who don’t, we have you in our prayers.