The Manila Times

Pandemic purgatory

ROUGH TRADE BEN KRITZ äKritzA13

FOR much of the now 18-monthold pandemic, countries such as Taiwan (See what I did there, China? Don’t expect an apology.), Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam were considered the models of pandemic control, acting promptly with well-organized and aggressive measures to keep the numbers of new coronavirus infections and deaths low.

These places stood out in comparison to the catastrophes in the United States and other countries, and certainly were the subject of envy here in the Philippines as well. Watching neighboring countries apparently come to grips with the coronavirus successfully using relatively simple, straightforward methods while the leadership here tries to reinvent the wheel on almost a daily basis has been frustrating and steadily becomes more so as clear signs of progress remain absent as the pandemic drags on.

However, a thought-provoking article this week in The Atlantic may soften attitudes toward the Duterte government’s handling of the pandemic, not because its methods are in any sense more effective than they appear — they are not — but because the Philippines seems not to be alone in pandemic purgatory.

As the article explains, the Asian countries that adopted an aggressive “zero virus” objective early on are now finding themselves unable to progress. Whereas countries that were in a disastrous state a few months ago have rapidly returned to something that at least closely resembles normalcy — and are enjoying surging economies as a result — most countries in our part of the world are stuck in an endless cycle of coronavirus resurgence and restrictive suppression tactics.

The Atlantic article attributes the problem to two things. First, obtaining adequate supplies of vaccines has been difficult for most countries in the region, although for different reasons and to varying degrees depending on the country. The second and larger problem, however, seems to be the so-called “vaccine hesitancy” slowing down uptake of what vaccines are available.

Part of this hesitancy is due to suspicion directed at China and its vaccines, and some of it, ironically, is due to the initial success of some countries in keeping the pandemic in check. In Hong

Kong, for example, there have been fewer than 12,000 coronavirus cases out of a population of about 7.5 million people and only 210 deaths, the most recent of which was seven weeks ago. Thus, the coronavirus seems like a low risk to many people. Furthermore, as Hong Kong makes no distinction between vaccinated and unvaccinated people in terms of its heavy quarantine rules and other restrictions, most see no apparent advantage in getting inoculated.

The situation here in the Philippines seems to be similar in many respects. Vaccine acquisition and distribution have been problematic, keeping the vaccines out of reach of many who actually do want them, although to be fair this situation is gradually improving. Vaccine hesitancy remains high, however, and for reasons that echo those in Hong

Kong and other places: The government has done a terrible job of communicating the value and necessity of vaccination and provides absolutely no incentive in terms of relief from suppressive restrictions for anyone who is on the fence about it to get the shot.

People who get vaccinated rather expect that, having taken what is universally acknowledged to be the step necessary to protect themselves and others, they will be given at least some freedom from restrictions that have been consistently characterized as necessities in lieu of vaccine availability. What they’re given instead is the continuing indignity of face shields and other similar policies based on the elephant repellent argument.

The most disturbing takeaway from all of this is that having arrived in pandemic purgatory, the Philippines and other countries in Asia may find there will be no road out of it even if they want to find one, at least not for a very long time.

The Atlantic story provides an alarming explanation for this from an expert in Taiwan: “The variants now spreading in some Asian countries, says Andrei Akhmetzhanov, an assistant professor at National Taiwan University’s College of Public Health, are a result of higher incidence of disease in countries that had struggled to contain the virus earlier in the pandemic. Now these harder-hit countries are protected by vaccines, but others that did a much better job of suppressing the virus initially are not and, perversely, are more vulnerable to the threat of new variants.”

To his credit, President Duterte seems to understand the significance of the problem, fuming in his

weekly TV address that people who refuse the vaccine should either leave the country or be jailed. While the frustration is valid, the solution is obviously not very practical, but in this case, it apparently wasn’t intended to be. If the president’s public health advisors would demonstrate something higher than a room-temperature IQ and realize that his hyperbole — as it often seems to be — is just a weird way of asking for more useful suggestions, they would recommend that addressing the causes of vaccine hesitancy, rather than the hesitancy itself, will be more productive.

But hey, we got face shields, right? So, what’s the problem?

Opinion

en-ph

2021-06-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://digitaledition.manilatimes.net/article/281990380488570

The Manila Times