Diana Yamashita
It has been years since a potent virus had become rampant and caused an outbreak across the nation. During the last 4 years, corona viruses have become the most notable viruses worldwide because of the occurrences of several recent deaths. The proliferation of the self-revolving infection occurred worldwide; in which the Philippines is also being affected.
In 2003, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or also known as SARS had been first identified in the province of Guangdong, China in 2002.
It is thought to be an animal virus from an as-yet-uncertain animal reservoir, perhaps bats, that spread to other animals. After implementation of appropriate infection control practices, it brought the global outbreak to an end.
In 2012, another viral respiratory infection had been identified in the Middle Eastern countries. Middle-Eastern Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, or MERS-CoV is a zoonotic virus that is transmitted between animals and people. Mainly it has been shown that humans are infected through direct or indirect contact with infected dromedary camels. MERS-CoV has been identified in dromedaries in several countries in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
The origins of the virus are not fully understood but, according to the analysis of different virus genomes, it is believed that it may have originated in bats and was transmitted to camels sometime in the distant past.
2020 didn’t start off its year in a bed of roses. In January 30, cases of the pandemic reached the sovereign state confirming its first case in Manila.
Mass hysteria has been rampant since then. Panic buying of surgical and N95 face masks had been an immediate necessity for everyone resulting in shortage of supply in a short time frame.
They say that prevention is always better than cure, but it wasn’t always this unruly inside the Metro. Since the announcement regarding the first confirmed case inside the country, not only did people become precautious, but also paranoid.
News had been deliberately releasing statements and updates about the pandemic. Social media platforms have not become much of a help since fake news started to be prevalent and rampant. Over the time, the cases started to increase and it brought hysteria to the nation. Until the Department of Health officials publicized a new case pertaining to a local transmission.
“The DOH is currently exhausting all its efforts to identify others who may have come in contact with the confirmed cases to ensure that this localized transmission does not progress to community spread,” was the official statement from Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III.
Like the fall of the Berlin Wall or the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the coronavirus pandemic is an earth-shattering phenomenon whose far-ranging consequences we can only begin to imagine today. This much is certain: Just as this disease has shattered lives, disrupted markets and exposed the competence (or lack thereof) of governments, leading to permanent shifts in political and economic power in ways that will become apparent only later.
For the past few weeks of this global, novel virus that has kept us contained in our homes—maybe for a couple of months—is already reorienting our relationship with the government, the outside world, and even with each other.
In the earliest days of our coronavirus social distancing, we have seen how the people, government and the whole nation, unite and stand one amidst the warfare and tussle.
From schools, government work, down to the stock market, the pandemic greatly affected each one drastically. Global supply chains were already coming under fire, both economically and politically.
No doubt that, media, too, will change. Perhaps in times like this, we can use our time with our devices to rethink the kinds of community we can create through them and promulgate a healthier digital lifestyle.
We are entering the next stage of coronavirus now, where life will change and perhaps dramatically. Nobody should be blamed for unwittingly infecting others, obviously; we’re all in this together. Diaries will empty almost as fast as train carriages, as all but essential meetings are scrapped. But that’s just the beginning. We may be entering a grim, involuntary social experiment revealing which everyday habits and practices we’d miss if they were gone, and which could be swept away surprisingly easily.
COMM2B 