Buy ourselves time

Just as I was feeling a little gloomy and a little scared with all the news coming out on lockdowns; cases and statistics; people scurrying and panic buying for goods, sanitizers, toilet paper, face masks, and alcohol; cancellation of flights, festivals, and gatherings brought about by the coronavirus disease-2019 or Covid-19, I came upon “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” with Dr. Mehmet Cengiz Oz, a Turkish-American television personality and cardiothoracic surgeon. My feelings and sentiments were somehow appeased and assuaged with the explanation of Dr. Oz about the “Buy Ourselves Time” approach. I am familiar with Dr. Oz as I have seen him in several of the Oprah Winfrey shows and he is good.
I have two sons working in Manila. The lockdown reality kicked in. My apo Eli will miss his dad because of travel restrictions. The element of fear multiplies with the unknown and prophesies from Catholic visionaries of centuries ago about the three days of darkness, coupled with pronouncements from governments all over the world do not help at all and indeed paints a gloomy picture.
Allow me to share the conversation between Jimmy Fallon and Dr. Mehmet Oz (otherwise you can watch it on You Tube).
Jimmy: Walk us through this please.
Dr. Oz: First I’ll say one thing, as a surgeon I’ve learned that when you tell people the truth, it’s going to hurt a little, but they get prepared. There is a lot of good news out there but some of the information is a little scary. I can give you two sides. The big message here is that “we can do this.” We’ve mobilized this nation before and without question “buy ourselves the time” we need for the public system to get better, for the emergency room to catch up and get the ventilators they need, for the government to figure what to do, but only if the people can hear my voice right now and act, are we going to buy ourselves time? Because this pandemic is spreading so rapidly that a lot of our leaders are out with the belief that most of the population of this country will be infected within a year. Now, that’s a problem because we don’t have the resources to take care of half of the people of this country. By slowing down the transmission, we completely change what the future could be.
Jimmy: We have to slow down the transmission. That is our goal. What is coronavirus?
Dr.Oz: There was a bad virus, we believe, that got married with a virus comfortable with humans and the two viruses had kids. One of the kids has the ability to infect us in ways we never imagined possible. And this new virus that we have never seen before, and our immune system cannot fight it off, there are only firewalls.
Dr. Oz goes on to explain the virus effect on kids and elderly. He tells us not to panic and to have a lifestyle change like exercise, eating the right food, the correct washing techniques, and demonstrates how a doctor washes his hands. It’s all about the washing of the fingers, hygiene, and social distancing. We should separate ourselves if possible when we don’t feel well and not rush right away to the emergency rooms. That way we don’t overwhelm the system. The goal is to slow down transmission and to buy time for the system to cope.
Perhaps, there is now a better understanding on lockdowns and quarantine.
For those interested, Francis Brito, athletic director of the Bell Church Lion Dancers would like to announce their summer training camp. Registration is ongoing and classes start March 25. For updates, please contact 442- 2042.