The year that was.

It’s time to “Look Up”

2021 started out quite hopeful for me. Despite 9 months of hard lockdown and massive financial losses, we welcomed in the new year with an ease on restrictions; businesses and tourist spots started slowly opening up again, and the mass roll out of vaccines gave us all the promise of a return to normalcy.

“Bakuna to normal” they said. “Do your part” they said. “Just until we reach herd immunity” they said.

12 months later, however––despite a Metro Manila vaccination rate of 94% of targeted individuals completed as of last month––not just are we still up to our ears in IATF guidelines, QR codes, vaccine passports, forced quarantine periods and mandatory PCR or antigen testing for almost everything, but now there’s even a renewed push for the return of the dreaded face shield.

Where exactly does it end? Well, that all depends on what you believe “it” is. Are you on the side that believes we are still fighting a virus, or the side that believe we are now exploiting one?

Now this is the point where they would tell you to shut up. “You’re not a doctor, scientist or epidemiologist” “Stick to traffic and car reviews.” They’ll say. And so the cycle continues, forcing us deeper and deeper into dystopia, where one needs to be fully qualified or accredited by a small group of self -appointed experts, just to comment on one’s own reality.

Well here’s the reality. We have listened to everything ‘they’ said for two years now and we are no closer to normalcy than we were in 2020. Cases are still growing, fearporn is at an all time high, while money to ease the suffering caused by forced lockdowns and mandates is at an all time low. So if the goal is to return to normal, we need to start asking normal questions again. Like why are we doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results? And, if after 3 doses of the vaccine, people are still catching it and passing it on, at what point do we start allowing dissenting opinion?

“Now is the worst time to drop your guard” They’ll say. “Omnicron is far more contagious than Delta.”

Spoiler alert: there will always be a new variant for as long as we keep buying into it. Kind of like how the Fast and the Furious, Rocky, Die Hard or the Marvel franchise scheme works. But the Pharma edition.

Winston Churchill famously said “Never let a good crisis go to waste” Now I’m not suggesting that this is what our government is doing, but as this has been declared a global pandemic, our health department is taking the cue from a centralized group of experts on the other side of the pond, who may or may not have our best interests at heart.

So where do we go from here? This has been the most divisive topic the human race has ever faced since the pineapple on pizza issue. “Just trust the science!” they say. “You’re anti-science if you don’t” Which is ironic, because trusting the science and never questioning it, is the most anti-science thing you can do simply because science is a process––a consensus––not an outcome, and one that is never settled. Science, by its very nature and purpose, is discovery. Discovery that needs to be perpetually questioned and proven wrong. That’s how it discovers truth––by proving itself wrong until it gets there.

So while I may not have ended 2021 the same way I started, as we usher in 2022, with restrictions being eased just a little, I am once again hopeful because I believe more in herd immunity than herd mentality. But that rests entirely on whether or not we start being open to new ideas and alternatives, including just learning to live with it, so that we can make sure 2022 does not become 2020 too.