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getting tired of the lack of compassion here... when it seems to be the young who flout the rules and spread the virus and the old who follow the rules....

 

I can understand how people became irrational. Just look at the massive fear porn we were subjected on regular media and social media including Facebook. The videos on TV and youtube showing dead bodies in Italy falling off the trucks onto the street. In the US in Staten Island, New York with the ambulance sirens as they passed by every 2 or 3 minutes and people huddling inside their homes, TV doctors claiming that millions will soon die, videos of Wuhan residents being dragged out of apartments and crammed into into trucks bring driven to quarantine camps and videos of people in Wuhan simply dropping dead on the street.

Now it has been a while and we recognize that although the disease is horrible, much worse than flu strains we are familiar with, the death rate is 1.5% and not of the whole population but only of those testing positive. It has been going down according to the IATF graphs. I the early days I heard figures of total deaths approaching 10% of entire country populations if we didn’t lockdown. Our data on countries that did not lock down is sparse but it seems to show that lockdowns have some life saving benefit but mass casualties do not occur when they are lifted.

But when it comes to matters of life and death it is psychologically difficult to roll back and take a less emotional and more rational perspective. You have been scared out your wits. The fright does not leave the mind so quickly when those shocking images and words have sunk in so deeply.

It seems to stay with people for a long time, reading the majority of comments to covid news on FB. Those who want to relax lockdowns are akin to psychopaths who do not care if people die. So many are probably afraid to comment. Peer approval is much more important here than in the west.

Past “quarantine” actions always meant “quarantining” individuals known or suspected to have been in contact with sick people and then “isolating” the sick people themselves. However, China started a new procedure we could call the “Wuhan” process; what they did, and the rest of the world copied, was to quarantine the entire population, not just the sick or potentially sick as before.

This was the first time in history that happened in a large scale, at least as far as I can see. The 100% quarantines started in Wuhan China and we thought they likely knew the best way to handle it, after all, they were the experts, so everybody followed and they quarantined entire cities and regions just as Wuhan and surrounding provinces did.

Initially this may have been justified because of the high presumed contagiousness. It is truly quite high with an R of 1.3 or more. But at the beginning, scientists were saying it was 6, definitely an added reason to keep everybody inside. To my knowledge, nobody is re-evaluating the need for 100% mass quarantine now that R is known to be much lower.

R = 1.3 is highly contagious; it means that every sick person infects 1.3 more people, so, the disease rampages through the cities if no restrictions are made (like quarantine in its “normal” definition).

Remember the 14 days to “flatten the curve”, to stem the increase in RATE of infections? That occurred here months ago. And for those who think “death rate” is more important, that rate has been in the negative direction even with the statistical increase in new cases (but not increase in rate of infection aka flattening the curve).

“Flattening the curve” is a passé term nowadays for those who remember it. But at the beginning it was the most urgent effort to be undertaken by all nations on the planet. There is not much advertising revenue when reporting news that said we made significant progress on the disease, at least not then.

I tend to be in eskirvin’s corner on this. We really need to do a deep dive and readjust our containment measures if more recent data supports it (loosening restrictions).

I did not say we should stop trying to contain the virus. Or to not selectively protect the most endangered. But we need to give it another look and we may find many relaxations that would make perfect sense.


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PAL issued a new advisory 7pm last night now saying they ARE flying to Dumaguete Weds 3rd and Fri 5th

Wait around a few hours and it could change again!

Passengers are I understand mostly LSI's fully documented with Travel Authority and approved by Dumaguete City and met by LGU officials and transported to 14 day quarantine either the City Gym (free) or LGU arranged Hotel (you pay)

WHO ARE LSIs?

Locally Stranded Individuals (students, tourists, workers) who have expressed their interest to return to their place of residence.

My partner and her 6yo son are in the LSI's arriving Weds 3rd after 10 weeks stranded in Marinduque. Hope it happens

 

The one thing Toyota has going for it here over Nissan is massive brand power which makes for a quick selling vehicle with minimal loss. We bought a Mazda CX3 in Manila while working and living there, perfect small car for NCR, Luzon. We drove it to Dumaguete for a 3 month trip, we never left and our one regret here is ground clearance. Roads a generally wider and better here than NCR but so many of the places you want to get to in Negros Oriental roads can be very bad.

Toyota Rush ticks a lot of boxes if you dont want a Truck/ Ute and at 1,1M PHP super popular for resale, good clearance. Mostly ugly but not as ugly as a Suzuki Ertriga and super practical. I would go a Truck/ Ute if you are going to do any building work. Delivery costs, delays and dealing with delivery drivers is a pain and if you can load most materials onto your on truck it makes life a little bit easier here.

 

words matter my friend... use each one to build others up... not to tear them down... and you will find you are living the life you were created to live.

 

Jo

Jolo Island, the home base, should be turned into a cinder as a "warning" to other militant groups!