These are dark times. We have the two forces of the pandemic and politics pulling us into the darkness.
It would almost be better in some ways to be able to limit any discussion to only the Philippines. At least we could try to point a finger of blame. Like a basketball game, we could choose to sit on our favorite team’s side of the arena and cheer for the “good” guys and boo the “bad” guys. Because all aspects of Covid have become politicized, “facts” are fluid and data proves whatever you want it to prove. Just like in politics.
Listen to this rhetoric from the leader of a First-World democracy. “France President Emmanuel Macron vowed to make life miserable for those unvaccinated against the novel coronavirus.” “I really want to piss off the unvaccinated,” Macron told the French newspaper Le Parisien. “And so we are going to continue doing that, until the end. He said those who refused the Covid-19 vaccine are the minority, so it wouldn’t be affecting the France population at large.”
Macron is correct about the unvaccinated being a minority. France has administered at least 128,345,607 doses of Covid vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs two doses, that is enough to have vaccinated about 95.7 percent of the country’s population. So, basically, only about three million French are the “unvaccinated.”
Except, since January 1st, France has recorded 2.4 million new cases. Somehow the numbers do not add up. Either almost everyone who was not vaccinated is now infected or there is a substantial number of the vaxxed that now have the illness.
But confusion as to the effectiveness of government’s Covid mitigation policies has been going on for two years. The United Arab Emirates, Denmark, and Austria have the highest testing per capita in the world with vaccination rates of 92, 80, and 75 percent, respectively. Yet each has experienced a great percentage increase in cases in the past two weeks.
Certainly, testing and vaccination must be a priority. However, we know that vaccination is not a magic bullet even though the severity of the disease and mortality rate is much lower for those who have been jabbed. But mass testing has its own failings. Unless some expert can figure out a way to mass test 100 million Filipinos all at once, a person tested negative this morning could be infected by someone this afternoon.
Accuracy varies. PCR Covid tests remain the gold standard for diagnosing infection. A 2021 study found mucus PCR tests correctly diagnosed in 97.2 percent of cases. The antibody tests correctly identified the presence of these antibodies in 91.6 percent of cases. Potentially you could have as many “false” results as the total number of cases officially reported. For asymptomatic patients who test positive, a second test is almost mandatory. And what do you do with the “positive” cases?
There are many good ideas that are not feasible in the real world. The DOH announced a shift in response strategy: Contact tracing and testing only to detect cases are not a priority. Instead, the primary function of RT-PCR test is now to help determine the proper clinical management of high-risk patients.
Winston Churchill said this in 1942 as German forces were in full retreat in Africa and Russians stopped the Germans at Stalingrad. “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
It is unfortunate that there is not a vaccine for politics.
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