Best Posts in Forum: COVID-19

That has nothing to do with any Virus, it is and has been for a long time illegal to drive in Flip Flops or open toed Sandals it is a safety thing in Driving

 

I lived in Taiwan for 26 years. They really have their sh*t together on this. They learned a lot from the SARS epidemic and some senior officials (VP, mayor of Taipei for example) are medical doctors. One of my friends there was infected but recovered. Another was quarantined for two weeks with electronic surveillance and solid support from food delivery to laundry service. Taiwan has about the best socialized healthcare system in the world.

I don’t see DOCOM operating at the moment and certainly the usual scent of coconut on the breeze as you would notice in this season is absent. I haven’t seen a sugarcane truck in a while but they had just harvested before lockdown. The sugar business only really benefits a handful of landowners anyway.

Tax pisos flow up to Manila. I don’t expect to see any return.

Tourism is over for this year I’m afraid. We’ll see a swath of businesses either just not re-opening or changing hands at deep discounts. It won’t just be the resorts. Lots of smaller businesses rely on the resorts, like laundries, fruit vendors, tank fillers.

Another problem I don’t see discussed much is OFWs. Huge numbers of locals rely on remittances from overseas to sponsor their videoke and rum, and many of those are unemployable even in a strong economy. A downturn in global demand hurts the shipping industry and the cruise ship business is going to be decimated. That’s a lot of Filipino seamen idle. Only the medical professionals are going to be in demand, and we could sorely use those here. Vastly reduced remittances to folk with little to no education, work experience, habit or ethic.

I think Occ. played us. They knew we were going to extend ECQ and waited for the official EO to drop before announcing the phase out. A lot of politicians are far more concerned about media attention than the welfare of the electorate.

 

I fully understand the strict rules imposed in Philippines with regard to the Lockdown, but many forum members also live outside the Philippines who retain an interest in their Homeland or their spouses Homeland. I have read on this forum and other forums, Expats moaning about the lockdown and objecting to it. The reason of my input was purely to comfirm that this Covid virus should be taken seriously, something which around the world is now being taken far to lightly.
I might also add that it would seem that Southern Asia has managed the virus more effiecently than elsewhere.

It is a sad fact that really poor people have little chance of improvement, I have seen the poverty first hand and as a Christian, support not just family members but charities dealing with
people in dire circumstances. The world has a lot more problems it should address, Covid is just one of them.

 

I tend to lean toward the idea that such statements from him are sometimes not meant literally but as a means to get compliance. A controversial method for sure but perhaps ultimately rooted in pragmatism guided by the understanding that it may be the most useful means to encourage obedience in a society notorious for bending or ignoring the rules. Duterte understands the mind of the Filipino.

 

Some good news for our area at last: out of the 23 quarantained persons in the Dumaguete area 20 have completed their 14 day quarantaine yesterday, all without showing illness. One more will complete their 14 days today and the last two on sunday.
https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/...-complete-14-day-quarantine-no-n-cov-symptoms
Also keep in mind that there's still only 5 persons (if my information is correct) in hospital here, of which 4 already tested negative for the virus (still awaiting results of a second test). The fifth still waiting for results of the first test.
I mention the "still only 5" because it would seem unlikely that more patients would surface from contacts of the initial 2 chinese patients and these 5. With the incubation time of max 14 days we would have already seen more if there had been further spread.
Obviously this doesn't mean we can sound the "all clear" yet, but at least it seems likely at this time that the visit of the two chinese infected people didn't have disastrous consequences for our area.

 

"Closing the barn door after the horses are gone" comes to mind

 

PLEASE, as an intelligent person, explain to me how using vaccination against smallpox (as just one example) is a "temporary misguided efforts to delay the inevitable". It wiped out whole races when carried around by 'explorers' and is likely to re-appear only if used by terrorists - if it is then the vaccine stockpiles will be used. Or do you really believe it better we allowed such diseases to run rampant and wipe out whole sections of the human race?

 

My biggest problem is the arbitrarily imposed elder age limit for going into the city and even the barangay. Each EO copies the other without much thought. Somebody came up with the idea that this was necessary for 65+ and everyone copied it. It continues into GCQ at the lower 60+ (getting closer to impacting you yet?) I know of no other countries that do this because I those countries elders gotta get food and go to the atm machines too. 60+ (revised LOWER age limit likely copied and recopied by typo) already KNOW they must take extra protection and only go out when absolutely necessary; they will if they want to live. The newer rules even ban people with risk factors from going out. Not sure how to enforce that since risk factors are not always visible, although obese people could be quickly identified and arrested for their own good I suppose lol. I suspect the elder ban may be based upon local Filipino culture where family and relatives are available and it can be practical for them. But no thought about the retired expats who didn’t marry a much younger bride or whose helpers went home for the duration in most cases. When PRA reopens, I plan to bring this up as I suspect that many future PRA retirees, concerned about this practice during the imminent future seasonal infection peaks, may choose places where they will not likely be locked down directly due to age; instead they may prefer places where expat elders can get medicine and money, following social distancing. In my case, “home” is what the wife and I are thinking. I am going to make a real big deal about this to PRA SRRV when they reopen; at least we have our SRRV deposits as some minimal leverage. I know, don’t let the swinging doors hit you on the way out lol. Also I hear what you say, Pat, about the success of ECQ, but I am not that sure if the ECQ had any significant effect one way or the other. Not many cases here but then again, there are many places where it is not so successful, ie in the NCR region (according to IATF) which has similar ECQ rules, so, does it really make that much of a difference? Any answer is just a guess. And what does the no-swimming, alcohol ban, wearing masks while driving, confiscating motor vehicles with no OR, charges when no DL really accomplish to reduce infections? Every provincial EO seems to copy the NCR EO boilerplate but this is not NCR. I suspect what had a major positive effect was travel ban between provinces, not these other rules. Just another opinion.




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If it gives peace and happiness then good on them, The world is a difficult place to exist and I will not begrudge anyone happiness...