MY VIEW ON CONTAINMENT OF CORONA VIRUS

            Based on the information I gathered concerning the outbreak of Corona virus as well as the different measures that governments of the world have taken, I would like to express the following:

            There are already corrective measures that have worked such as that of China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and South Korea. Their decisive corrective measures such as immediate lockdowns in my view is something to be adopted by others regardless of the current status. The measures adopted by Philippine government to me is commendable even if there are still small identified number of cases infected by the virus.  This is because if only one or two infected by virus attended a large social gathering you can imagine how quickly the virus will spread. I am not in favor of the so-called "herd immunity" that is being considered by UK. This is because it is risky as there is no assurance of its end-result. Why adopt something that could jeopardize the health of the general public not to mention the sufferings that they would experience, when there are already tested measures that have successfully worked. Another thing is, if for example the virus is deadlier that so-called “herd immunity” will certainly be suicidal. My point here is if in the future another deadlier virus outbreak occur, God forbids, the nations of the world would already be familiar with what to do. And they would have been prepared for it. The governments can take this as an exercise for that future occurrence.

                 (With regards to measures being adopted by Australia, particularly the banning of gathering of more than 500 people, to me that number is still high; 10 will be appropriate (like the one adopted by US) as they themselves will be able to monitor and manage their actions such as practice of hygiene and they know if they are not infected. Australia has not closed the schools yet when many of them are more than 500 people. It seems that the only concern of the PM is that the parents who are health care professionals would not be able to work because they will be staying at home to look for their children. I think this can be remedied by simply putting up a temporary day care in schools specifically for the children of health care professionals.)

          (Personally, I am in favor of anticipating any type of calamities in the future and the government and people be prepared for it. There should be a ready system and measures in place just in case such calamities occur. There must be enough supplies of materials and equipment as well as enough personnel to handle and mitigate such uncertainties, if not it can be quickly made available. And then always pray that such calamities will not happen.)

           Lock downs, school closures, flight bans, isolations will surely be effective on halting the spread of the virus regardless of whether it has gone far or not. Why? It is simply because it minimizes people contacting one another directly or indirectly through touching what others have touched. Those who have already contracted a disease due to virus will be treated. There are surely other people who are already infected by the virus but have no symptoms yet. During the 4 weeks lockdowns, they will surely experience the symptoms (within 2 weeks) and will then seek medical treatments. (This will be the cause of spikes) Those whom they got in personal contact with as well as the places they have been to can be traced; they can be advised for observation and testing, and the places can be disinfected and can be marked as red zones for the public to know. During the next two weeks, they too will surface to seek treatment and be identified as well. Owing to lock downs no more further infections can occur and the cases will begin to subside.

              Everyone of course must be given information on the precautionary measures such as proper hygiene, frequent washing of hands with soap and water for 20 seconds or the use of alcohol-based sanitizers, avoiding touching the face especially when the hands aren’t washed,  changing clothes and taking shower daily after work, avoiding touching suspected surfaces like door knobs, handrails, elevator buttons, personal belongings of others as much as possible, etc. Frequent cleaning and disinfecting personal belongings can be practiced. You can treat every member of household as if they are already carrier of virus especially after coming from the outside. Many testing centers must be available so that anyone experiencing even a slight symptom can immediately ask for testing. 

              With respect to impact on economy, I would prefer a little economic sacrifice than to take the risk of endangering the lives of people. Economy can always catch up. Otherwise, you will find another economic turmoil coupled with another disaster in the future. 

               What is more important is our spirituality. We need to ask God’s help. We have to rely on divine intervention on human affairs because trying to solve something without regard to the Presence of God can result in failure if not today in the future challenges. This is because God will withdraw himself from us because you are denying his Presence. We know that human intellect is subject to error, somehow you will encounter problems that cannot be determined by human mind and effort. In fact, this outbreak of virus occurred because of collective human errors in the past. It is part of the karma of mankind. There is a certain negative human creation in the forgotten past recorded in the memory body of the planet that led to the surfacing into the physical realm that needs to be transmuted and balanced. See my next blog in relation to this matter.