Cautious optimism  

My optimism about the current stage of this pandemic may come as a surprise to some. I’ve been consistent in urging people not to let their guard down. And I’ve been one of those early to raise the alarm about the disease after reading the works of experts.

That was the time when the disease was still initially spreading in Wuhan City, China. I knew that “transparent authoritarianism” is an oxymoron; that what China’s authoritarian rulers were willing to share to the world at that time could be a sanitized version of what was actually happening on the ground.

In Cebu today, I see the situation on the ground after COVID-19 cases have gone down considerably for the past several weeks. I see people wearing masks in public, especially in indoor settings. I also see more people now going to vaccination centers particularly those located in the malls.

That is the source of my optimism amid the emergence of the Omicron variant. But just to be certain, my optimism comes with a caveat that we should continue to follow public health protocols and strive to achieve herd immunity through vaccination.

A case in point is Spain, a country that has largely avoided Europe’s current COVID-19 surge. Other countries in Europe have been experiencing new daily record-high cases of infection. “From Berlin to Budapest, Amsterdam to Athens, Europe is in a panic,” writes American author and journalist Melissa Rosi for Yahoo!News.

What exactly it is that Spain has been doing that seems to work? Spain has a very high vaccination rate at nearly 80% of the entire population. But that is not the only thing, because Germany too has a relatively high vaccination rate, yet is experiencing its fourth wave. Vaccination significantly reduces transmission and the risk of hospitalization or death, but it does not guarantee total immunity from COVID-19.

Unlike most European countries, Spain continued with its strict public health protocols. And it never really dropped indoor mask mandates and physical distancing measures. With Europe’s winter season, Spain’s average daily infection number is still in the thousands but this is far from the surges in most of the continent. Most Spaniards, according to Rosi’s report, have developed a consciousness about COVID prevention measures. Even outdoors, many people can still be seen wearing masks.

In the Philippines, we may be relaxing some rules already under Alert Level 2 but there should still be no room for complacency. Initial studies have suggested that the Omicron variant is more infectious but less severe than Delta. In South Africa where the variant was first observed, hospital admission rates remain stable.

Mask up, wash your hands, maintain distancing, and get the jab. These are still what it takes to be on top of the situation. None of this is rocket science. What complicates a pandemic is human attitude and behavior. It’s no longer a question of whether or not masking, vaccination, and physical distancing are effective public health measures against COVID-19. It’s a question of our ability to follow these health measures until the threat of COVID-19 is completely gone.

In my case, I can see better days ahead because I’ve felt a shift in public behavior toward wearing masks and getting vaccinated. Before the pandemic hit us in 2020, I had on several occasions worn a mask especially when I was in crowded places. It’s a practice I took from my previous travels in at least eight Asian cities during the pre-pandemic era. In most of the countries I visited in Asia, which includes Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore, mask wearing was seen as an act of prudence and courtesy, the latter being that you cover your mouth and nose when you’re sick.

Here, a few years ago before this pandemic, I had been met with strange stares from people inside the mall every time I had a mask on – like was I was some patient who had just escaped from the infectious ward of a hospital. Today, everyone wears a mask in public. Of course, I look forward to the day when we no longer need to do so on most occasions.

What I know for sure is that in the future, if ever I will choose to wear a mask on some occasions post-pandemic, people would no longer give me the same stare they gave me prior to the pandemic; that we all have learned our lessons, albeit the hard way.