UNITED States President-elect Joseph Biden spoke on the COVID-19 pandemic in an address to the nation on the eve of Thanksgiving Day. He vowed to use the vast powers of the federal government to change the course of the disease in the US, where it continues to infect and kill thousands of Americans daily.
“But for that to work,” he said, “Americans must step up for their own safety and that of their fellow citizens.”
That is one observation that applies to all nations around the world. Governments may impose all sorts of restrictions but ultimately, it is the people themselves who must step up for their own safety.
The COVID-19 virus has managed to spread all over the world and is now in over 125 countries. After the virus was found to be capable of jumping from person to person via droplets in the breath of an infected victim, the World Health Organization came up with three basic instructions:
– Wear a face mask and, if possible, also a face shield to keep from inhaling any virus-laden droplets in the air.
– Keep a distance of at least one meter from all other persons, in case one of them may be a carrier of the virus, perhaps unknown even to himself.
– Wash your hands thoroughly and frequently with soap and water, in case you had inadvertently touched a surface with the virus on it, then unthinkingly touched your mouth, nose, or eyes.
This is what we in the Philippines have summed up in the very basic instruction of “Mask. Hugas. Iwas.”
In time – perhaps in a few months – the newly developed vaccines will produce what is called “herd immunity” so that the virus can no longer find a suitable host in which to multiply and the COVID-19 pandemic will die down. But until then, it will all depend on the people.
It has been 11 months since COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China, then began to jump to other countries. The Philippines was among the first nations to impose restrictions on people’s movements with the Enhanced Community Quarantine in Metro Manila and Luzon in March.
It is now the end of November. We won’t have access to a vaccine in sufficient quantities to achieve “herd immunity” until many months from now. Until that day comes, it will be up to every person to protect himself/herself with “Mask. Hugas. Iwas,” in the process also protecting all others in the family, in the office, in the community.
President-elect Biden may have been thinking of the American people in his address to the nation on the eve of Thanksgiving Day. But his words are for everyone on this earth, as everyone continues to be threatened by a tenacious virus that has already killed millions of people around the world.
