Enter, buy, and go

Earlier this month, my 44-inch flat screen TV which was a gift to me from a client nine years ago finally gave out. I say ‘finally’ because I had long wanted to buy a Smart TV but the scrooge in me said ‘No!’ until that old TV stopped working. So when it finally stopped working, I immediately made specific plans to purchase a Smart TV.

Planning the purchase was needed because ordering online was out of the question. I’ve read enough negative reviews about knockoff brands or even imitation products of famous electronic brands delivered to clueless customers. Warranty is another reason for not ordering online, because you would prefer to deal with a local shop when something goes wrong with the item you just bought.

The plan was to “enter, buy, and go” preferably in less than 15 minutes at the electronic store shop inside a mall. With the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the city, it’s best to minimize one’s exposure to public places. First, I did some window shopping online. Then I checked if a similar brand and model of TV that I like online is available in our local shops. When I got confirmation that it’s available, I masked up and headed to the shop of my choice and did the “enter, buy, and go.”

Really, at the risk of being labelled overacting, you can choose methods like “enter, buy, and go” as part of your way of life today. It need not be a false choice between the economy and containing the virus. If we fail to adapt to the COVID times, if we do not learn to deal with the obstacles posed by public health protocols against the spread of infection, many people will continue to suffer, needlessly.

The Philippines GDP already shrank by 9.5% in 2020, the worst since 1947, according to Nikkei Asia. Compare that to Vietnam, China, and Taiwan’s modest GDP growth in the same period, and Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia’s management of their GDP contraction at between -4% and -6%. Yet in Southeast Asia, the Philippines ranks second to Indonesia in the most number of COVID-19 cases and number of deaths.

The Philippines suffered the worst beating in 2020 not because we chose to contain the virus over the economy, but because we were slow to act during the early days of the virus outbreak. Our government initially downplayed the COVID-19 threat. If there were prudent officials who intended to sound the alarm, they were easily muffled by a president who could not control his mouth. As a result, we imposed the world’s longest lockdown that brought our economy to its knees. But to its credit, unlike Trump’s America, our government did not deny reality when it became clear that the pandemic, if left uncontrolled, would break the health system and result to so many deaths.

You may point your finger at me for speaking from a position of privilege. Easy for me say “enter, buy, and go” because I have internet at home to do prior research. Easy for me to advise people to stay away from public places while many others have no choice but to go to the public market or do grocery runs because delivery service costs are beyond their budget.

The scrooge in me wants to do grocery runs too; it’s way lot cheaper than buying grocery supplies online. But if I can be one fewer person in a grocery store, then I choose to be that one fewer person. If I can support new jobs that are created by on-demand delivery apps, then I choose to keep those jobs existing.

As much as you can afford, you have a responsibility to protect others. Even if the virus passes on to you without doing any serious harm, by not protecting yourself and others and you eventually get infected, you become a vector of the virus. You can pass it on to someone whose immune system may be weak, or who may have comobirdities. You contribute to keeping the infection active in the population. The virus is like a fleet of loaded trucks crossing a bridge toward a destination where it can do real harm. By flouting health protocols, you become that bridge.

Besides, SARS-COV-2 is a novel coronavirus. Experts are still studying its long-term effects on the body of some patients who have long recovered from the infection but are still feeling weird.