China denies donating COVID-19 test kits yielding ‘inaccurate’ results China denies donating COVID-19 test kits yielding ‘inaccurate’ results Inquirer.net

‘I see dead people’ — the China syndrome Featured

LITO MONICO C. LORENZANA
LML Polettiques
08 April 2020
Comments:DISQUS_COMMENTS
IN this penultimate week of the quarantine, I am more than convinced that the Deegong did the right thing. But it may have to be extended* until “the curve is flattened.” Bureaucratic incompetence caught our government flat-footed — given that China’s lead gave us months of warning. Although its data are suspect, China’s immediate response was admirable, logical and remedial, focusing on the virus, arresting its spread by expanding healthcare capacity. Its drastic methods are something to be emulated — massive field tests to cull out the positives; trace those infected; then quarantine and apprehend both, if necessary. In contrast, the United States, similarly challenged, prioritized instead an economic stimulus and interest rate cuts, shoring up the economy and its stock market to the delight of Wall Street. Thus, federal states are faced with a severe shortage of critical tools to fight this pandemic — from personal protective equipment pr PPE to hospital ventilators. New York is now the virus’ epicenter. President Trump has been irresponsibly in denial for so long, overruling his own health professionals and wasting precious time. At this current rate of engagement, prognosis is a possible 140,000 to 240,000 dead — maybe more.

Historical pandemic precedents
This pandemic is now deadly. Historical precedent harks back to Europe’s deadliest outbreak 1,500 years ago — “The Plague of Justinian [in] 541 AD. The first recorded outbreak of bubonic plague kill[ed] 40 percent of Constantinople. It eventually eliminated one-half of the human population — in Europe — between the years 550 and 700. This is known as the first pandemic.”

The Spanish Flu of 1918 lasted three years, claiming 17 million to 100 million lives. The world’s population then was around 1.8 and 1.9 billion. Extrapolating with the current world population of 7.8 billion, a staggering 2 billion (26 percent) could possibly be infected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Unequivocally, our technology and science are far advanced today, but so is the virus. It too has mutated continuously over time, relying on human hosts. And the way Man has been irresponsible toward Nature, the latter is simply retaliating.

China’s preferred defense mechanism, lockdown/quarantine, turned the world upside down. But another tragedy awaits in the wings. Lockdowns here and abroad exposed what have been simmering beneath the economic and social surface — the disparity between the “haves and the have nots.” I see my own family as a microcosm mirroring society’s suitability to survive. In fact, my grandkids treat the quarantine as an enforced vacation with their lolo and lola here in Davao. Mom and Dad’s problem was how to occupy their time during lockdown. True, aside from online assignments and lessons from their schools, there are amusements and entertainment like Netflix, Xbox, IPads and DVDs filling their time. Internet reigns supreme.

But how about the children on the opposite end of the spectrum without access to the internet and therefore no online games occupying their time? Malls, gaming parlors, movie houses are closed for the duration. How are the masa and their children coping?

Economic stimulus
Now that we are on this topic, will the P260 billion injected into the economy benefit directly, among others, those wage earners who must forego daily wages during this lockdown? These are the Filipino “isang kahig, isang tuka,” or in the street lingo, “one day, one eat”! With our inherently defective system of governance, how is the inevitable leakage and rent-seeking handled? I have no answers and no suggestions. In this deep crisis, the default impulse is to save oneself and family first. This is simply the first rule of survival. Where do we go from here?

God knows I have so many issues against this government for bureaucratic incompetence and some policies bordering on the criminal; and a loathing toward the sycophants whose reflex mode is to grovel before the President. But this time, I add my support to this president to lead us out of this quagmire. We sink or swim together! Yellow, Blue, Red and White! Covid-19 does not distinguish between colors.

To appreciate the universe of this pandemic, I reprint excerpts from my column, (The pandemic of 2020, The Manila Times, Jan. 29, 2020).

“We are facing one of the biggest threats in the world today: the possibility of the annihilation of our species, the human race, no less, and only one country so far has understood the magnitude of the impending disaster and has responded accordingly. This is the spread of coronavirus. The disease first detected in the central China city of Wuhan in December 2019.”

The biggest tragedy is yet to come upon the introduction of the vaccine which the WHO (World Health Organization) predicts will be available only by 2021. While Covid-19 ravages the world in 18 months, not enough can be produced and distributed on time. The developed countries having first crack at these billions of doses; nary a dose will spill over to the impoverished countries of the Third World hampered by incompetence, logistics and greed; further decimating their already weakened population. Darwin’s law of natural selection will kick in – which simply means, the fittest will survive; a logical compliment to the hypothesis that results in a Malthusian catastrophe (“Covid-19 conspiracy theories,” TMT. April 1, 2020).

The world’s two remaining main protagonists are at center stage today. The incidence of new infections have abated in China while America’s numbers are just trending up. But in the Philippines, we are in for a deadly summer as health professionals are just predicting the explosion of contagion once testing is ramped up.

China-America-the Philippines
Which brings me to my last contentious issue overarching our foreign relations: the Deegong’s infatuation with China and the seeming denunciation of anything American. President Duterte declared an independent foreign policy that makes the Philippines “friend to all, enemy to none.” An admirable but slightly naïve appreciation of serious and complex foreign policy realignment reduced to the personal level. This pivot away from America was in essence the correct move given US intermittent interference and outright violations of Philippine sovereignty. But in the process of moving away from “big brother,” it has seemingly gone overboard — giving China license. And China has shown only disrespect for our sovereignty.

Rolly Narciso an MBM classmate propounded succinctly: “The China violations are actually more serious (Spratly Is., POGOs, main drug source, illegal workers, tax evasions, dummy investors, etc.) but got treated with nonchalance.” Now add to this Covid-19 from out of the exotic palates of Wuhan.

The Deegong is aware but profoundly silent. Is he intimidated or is this silence his paean to an unrequited arrangement he tried to hammer back in 2017. I wrote then: “It was no less a maudlin and yet naively erotic performance when the Deegong in his attempt to cut our umbilical cord with America, declared pompously that it was a ‘triumvirate of the Philippines-China-Russia against the world.’” In retrospect, the Chinese and Russian leaders’ reception of this statement was with an insouciance akin to adults invited to play in a sandbox by an overzealous child.

Yes, we mimic China’s lead and are thankful for its generosity. But must we give up our self-respect and be drawn totally into its web?

*This was written before President Duterte announced the extension of the enhanced community quarantine to March 30.000
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