WE KNOW more about the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 than we did four months ago. Scientists on the frontlines know even more than we do.
So far, the most beautiful sentence I’ve read about the pandemic turned up last week in The Atlantic, where the science writer Ed Yong wrote: “Scientists know the shape of proteins on the new coronavirus’ surface down to the position of individual atoms.”
Doesn’t that inspire awe?
This week, that is one of the sentences I will bear in mind as the numbers of those infected keep rising. That increase is practically guaranteed. Expect it.
The good news is, the more the world’s scientific community knows about how SARS-CoV-2 spreads, the better our public health authorities’ prevention and treatment plans will get.
Starting tomorrow, teams of health care workers will fan out across the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu to conduct rapid tests. These will show who among us already have the antibodies for COVID-19. After masks and rubbing alcohol, these upcoming immunity passes (or immunity passports) will be the most coveted goods around.
The target, according to a SunStar Cebu report, is to test 10 percent of the total number of households in all three cities, or about 47,000 persons.
Whether these persons test positive or negative, they will have gained something that’s more precious than ever these days.
They will have found a bit more certainty.
Numbers, at least reliable numbers, will offer that. Using the test results, health authorities will then be able to make more informed decisions about whom to place in quarantine and whom to allow outside, so parts of the economy can be restarted.
To do something “by the numbers” is to approach it using a standard, proven procedure.
Yet as much as the world’s scientific community has learned about COVID-19 and the virus that causes it, there is a lot more that remains unknown. There is no “by the numbers” approach to fighting it, at least not yet.
Four months in, no one really knows how many people have been infected with COVID-19. That number will only be available once every human being on the planet has been tested. That’s not going to happen.
As the numbers keep rising in the next few weeks, many of us may feel worry and doubt kick in, again and again. That will be the price to pay for the information we all so urgently need now. It will be a small price to pay.
Remember there are highly trained coronavirologists who have given so much of their time and intelligence to understanding this virus, that they know how its individual atoms are placed.
They may yet understand more about how we’re all going to learn to live with it, and at the same time protect the vulnerable and restore economies. This is one of those cases where ignorance is definitely not bliss.
In Cebu City, the test results will help Mayor Edgardo Labella and his advisers decide whether to lift some restrictions—whether to allow public transportation to resume on a limited capacity, for example, or whether to allow more establishments to resume business—after May 15.
More results will allow public health officials to see more clearly where health care workers and resources need to be fielded.
There is so much we still need to know. In the Philippines, only one in every 1,000 persons has been tested so far.
In South Korea, 12 out of every 1,000 have been tested, according to the nonprofit Global Change Data Lab and the University of Oxford. In Singapore, the number is 17. And in Iceland, which has one of the most comprehensive data sets about COVID-19, an estimated 144 have been tested, out of every 1,000.
So, this week, if the rising numbers make us fearful, remember: the more we know, the safer our communities will get. The more we know, the better we can fight this common threat.