THE major "metropoles" have locked down their fences -- from National Capital Region to Cebu to Davao (ok, gi bawi in favor of "community quarantine"), not to mention the provinces of Bohol and Negros. should "metropolitan" Cagayan de Oro do the same?
I heard the fear of one local councilor expressing his worries of an economic meltdown should we quarantine the city. methinks that should be the least of our concerns right now, where Adam Smith's "invisible hand" is already whipping up a corona-virus driven global recession by July. And because we thrive in a system, protecting CDO's economy while the whole world is on the verge of a collapse is an asynchronous decision that does not get us shielded from its impact anyway.
Unless we act as one.
Synchronicity therefore is key, particularly to a city that was host to one fallen victim and 50 health workers already in self-isolation. Today, NCR is officially on a lockdown (let's not quibble over the term for the time being). As of last night, our airport was recipient to a deluge of returnees from manila, us not knowing who has the virus or none.
Synchronicity is key. For what good do the efforts of these other "metropolitan centers" add to, if, within our city and province, we continue to be incubators of possible carriers, our health centers clearly ill-equipped to handle an outbreak?
If there is any better response to this health crisis, it is, as one kiwi epidemiological expert suggests, to think we are the virus carriers ourselves. and therefore to keep it from spreading is to isolate ourselves.
So back to our local councilor's myopic concern: What good is protecting our economy if our health ecosystem is in shambles? The basis of economics after all is our ecology -- our interrelatedness and connection in a system. Aanhin ang kabayo kung patay na ang damo? Health ecology sa unta before business profits. We can still be the source of future outbreaks, you know. In such eventuality, it's panic setting all over again.
But still, can a community quarantine work while fending for our economic welfare? Why not:
1. Shut down crowd-drawing activities for a number of days -- schools, malls, churches, public parks, hangout areas -- as Wuhan had done for a couple of days;
2. Provide skeletal force for the supply chain to keep grinding; pay double those who will risk the job; halve the pay for those who can't. But pay for subsistence. Ayaw mog hinangol. We suffer as one.
3. That said, spare the groceries, public markets, and pharmacies from shutting down to assure the public of regular sources for their daily needs;
4. Provide for the welfare of our health care frontliners. Realign your intel fund that was not used to monitor the pogo activities in this city to fend for the safety needs of these overstressed and overworked hospital workers.
5. Containment at city level alone is not feasible, kay lagi, "metropole" baya kita. We rely on our food supply chain from the peripheries; our city gets crippled if we shut off Balingasag's bangus and rice. You get the drift, or Claveria's gulay and manok at Sta. Cruz. Get this done at the provincial level; or at the very least, triangle corridors of contiguous economic areas (e.g., Tagoloan-CDO-Opol).
6. Waiting for a case to emerge before one acts for the declaration of a community quarantine does not make sense. By then, the spread and ROI (rate of infection) is moot and academic, the exponential multiplication whirring. We go back to the lens: act as if you already have the virus; and do the favor of not spreading it. NOW.
7. Sit down and craft your IRR. Get your acts in synch with all other regions. The race for a vaccine is still far from being achieved. Tick tock tick tock. Where much has yet to be understood with this virus, the better to err on actions at the side of caution.
8. When all this shall come to pass, re-assess: are we in fact ready for metropolitization? (Robert Dela Serna)
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(The article first appeared in Facebook group Mata na CDO on Sunday, March 15)