THERE is still a high incidence of Covid-19 in many countries in the world.
Based on the report from the World Health Organization (WHO) as of September 19, the United States is still on top with more than 6 million cases, followed by India with more than 5 million and Brazil with more than 4 million. Russian Federation has more than one million and Peru with more than 750,000 cases. Around the world, it has already reached more than 30 million confirmed cases, and every day, there are reported deaths from the disease.
In the Philippines, we share the same situation as in other parts of the world. We have reports of new cases by the thousands and a number of deaths.
It is still premature to say we are winning this fight against the virus. Many of our provinces and cities are still struggling to control the spread of infections and are confronted with the challenges of workload and the issue of available resources. But it could be hard to judge our health authorities and the government for not doing well in terms of protecting our people. Since Covid-19 is novel, we can simply take it from where it is today. The overall efforts are presumed enough according to what the government can afford to do and the available resources at hand.
I simply view that in this setting, the protocol on social distance could be the least to remind our people that we can do something to stop the spread of the virus.
By the very nature, Filipinos are closely knitted to one another. We are a society with close solidarity and that our daily interactions with one another shape our lives.
The problem in this pandemic, however, is the more we are attached to one another, there is a higher possibility of transmission. Health authorities consider human-to-human engagement as the culprit behind local transmissions. This is now the case in our locality.
I assume the rising cases of Covid-19 is basically because of our refusal to temporarily detach ourselves from the bonds that make us society and people. In many instances, I’ve observed this in public markets and barangays where our authorities can’t reach through their visibilities.
Meanwhile, the known countries with detached solidarity were the ones having many cases of Covid-19. In contrast, their supposed character of being less engaged to one another being industrialized did not help in controlling the spread of the disease.
In short, this is the new uncertainty the virus is setting in the stages of our lives. We are in a period of real change. There was a time in history when commonality to uphold the moral compass served as the ground to hold people and society together.
Sociologist Emile Durkheim coined “mechanical solidarity” to refer to a society like the Philippines and “organic solidarity” to a complex industrialized society where the division of labor is high. During the period of industrialization, he fears that society may be destroyed due to social change and people will be disoriented with such changes. He pointed out that by understanding what binds society together in terms of solidarity and values, the system could help in looking for reasons to let society survive. As time went on, society survived when the important elements of culture became a part of life.
In this pandemic, there is still no definite answer to the uncertainty the world is facing. What’s tangible would be the discovery of the vaccine to let people get on with their lives.
The truth remains that we are still groping as to what will restore our disturbed solidarity at present. This situation left us maintaining a social distance, hence, we can be hopeful to find a common ground that will restore society in the days to come following this social change.