BY now, everybody knows—unless you live under a social media-fortified rock—the tale of “Población Girl” and “Lady Massage.” The two are Filipina vacationers who returned to the country separately on December 22 from the US.
Gwyneth Ann Chua breached quarantine in Berjaya Makati Hotel the night after she arrived to party with her friends in Kampai, a bar in Barangay Población, Makati. On December 27, according to reports, she tested positive for the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. What’s worse, she infected around 15 people, including some of those who attended the merrymaking, and employees and other customers of the bar. Chua, who has been tagged by netizens since December 30 as ‘Poblacion Girl,’ has been moved to a different hotel for further isolation with increased security.
Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat in newspaper interviews said that Chua had boasted about paying the facility to avoid isolation: “The person did not undergo quarantine at all… There’s a modus that they’ll just pay and will only show up on the 5th day for swabbing.”
Berjaya Hotel at first denied the report and even vouched that Chua was in isolation the whole time. But after the DOT presented evidence from those who attended the party, the girl admitted that she had jumped quarantine. Berjaya has since then apologized, even as authorities are building up a case to be filed against the hotel and the girl.
‘Lady Massage’ is the other quarantine violator. From the airport, she went home directly to her BGC condo aboard her waiting car, instead of going to her designated quarantine facility in Makati. As Interior Secretary Eduardo Año disclosed on Tuesday, the woman was found out only because she brazenly posted online a photo of her having a massage, later falsely claiming exemption from isolation protocol.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Dionardo Bernardo Carlos has already mobilized appropriate police units to investigate both cases: “Based on the instructions of Secretary Año and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, I have instructed on December 30, 2021, the DIDM [Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management], CIDG [Criminal Investigation and Detection Group], NCRPO [National Capital Region Police Office] and HS [Health Service] to investigate the case and file appropriate criminal charges against anyone who will be found violating [the protocols]. Also, the PNP mandated to ensure public safety will do the rounds, inspections and accounting of persons under quarantine in designated hotels-quarantine facilities [QFs].”
Netizens are all riled up about both quarantine violators, vociferously denouncing them for their irresponsible actions, which they believe, contributed to the alert level status of Metro Manila being raised anew from Level 2 to Level 3 from January 3 to 15.
I am reminded of the story of Mary Mallon, an Irish immigrant to the US who worked in a variety of domestic positions for wealthy families prior to settling into her career as a cook. She was employed in 1906 by Charles Henry Warren, a rich New York banker in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Between August 27 and September 3 of that year, six of the 11 people who lived in Warren’s house suffered from typhoid fever.
Typhoid fever—a life-threatening illness caused by the Salmonella Typhi bacteria—at that time was still fatal in 10 percent of cases and mainly affected deprived people from large cities. Mary had no clue that she was a healthy carrier of the bacteria, and it took the sleuthing skills of George Sober to finally nail her as the spreader. In 1907, Sober who was hired by Warren to find out the origin of the disease, later discovered that Mary had been in the service of eight different households, with seven members declared typhoid cases with around 22 people presented signs of the infection. That year, about 3,000 New Yorkers had been infected by typhoid with Mary as the main outbreak source. Unfortunately, immunization against the bacteria was not developed until 1911, and antibiotic treatment was made available only in 1948.
Stigmatized as “Typhoid Mary,” she was believed to have infected hundreds of people, many of whom died. Because Mary persisted in working as a cook, and exposing others to the disease, she was twice forcibly quarantined by authorities, and died alone in 1938 at the age of 69, after a total of 26 years in isolation. The phrase ‘Typhoid Mary’ now refers to someone who transmits undesirable opinions, sentiments, or attitudes; a carrier or spreader of misfortune.
Typhoid Mary, Población Girl, and Lady Massage reflect the difficult task of convincing infection carriers to prevent themselves from infecting others. It also expounds on how one infected individual may exponentially cause disease outbreaks and spark national debate about prioritizing personal rights over public health, or pitting individual autonomy against the state’s responsibility during a public health crisis. France, for instance, has been under fire from its crackdown on unvaccinated people with the far left up in arms against the move. In Europe and in the US, anti-mask and anti-vaccination groups often violently skirmish with those who do not share their beliefs.
The reckless actions taken by these two Filipinas reek of entitlement and mirror the convoluted and immature thought process of some people who grew up with social media. Out of self-indulgence, they are nonchalant about the risk of infecting their families and friends. Such mindless attitude, faulty thinking, and boorish behavior will no doubt further strain the country’s already battered health-care system, just when the ultra-contagious Omicron variant is shoving Covid cases to unprecedented global highs. Experts say that we’re now experiencing the “highest-ever surge in the world,” with some countries scrambling to set up makeshift hospitals to handle Covid cases.
“Omicron is truly everywhere,” Dr. Megan Ranney, a professor of emergency medicine at Brown University’s School of Public Health, told CNN on Friday night. “What I am so worried about over the next month or so is that [the US] economy is going to shut down, not because of policies from the federal government or from the state governments, but rather because so many of us are ill.”
This jibes with Dr. Willie Ong’s prediction in his YouTube vlog that it’s only a matter of time before everyone gets infected. Dr. Guido David, a fellow at independent monitoring group OCTA Research, said in a Twitter post on Saturday that Metro Manila is now at high risk for Covid-19 transmission as its positivity rate has further increased to 28.03 percent. The seven-day average positivity rate in Metro Manila increased from 1.15 percent recorded in the previous week to 12.94 percent, David
explained. As of January 2, the Philippines registered 5,434 new cases or 26.5 percent of 25,704 people tested.
There must be some sensible parameters on how we as a nation can deal with the pandemic, which has upended the lives of millions of people around the world. I personally endorse mandated vaccination and booster jabs. Experts have since put forward that vaccines and the continued observance of strict safety protocols are our only way out of this pandemic. The reason coronavirus thrives is its ability to mutate in unvaccinated people. Getting vaccinated is the best way to keep yourself, your family, and your community safe. Let’s all get the “jab” done.
For comments and suggestions, e-mail me at mvala.v@gmail.com