AS THE current global pandemic crises proceeds today, we join fellow Filipinos in experiencing this exceptional event which has become a full blown crisis in our country and the world. This disaster has been described as an epidemic spreading widely and infecting many countries. Historians tell us that communicable diseases had existed from the earliest days of humanity. During the early centuries, diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, small pox and other pestilences appeared during those periods. While the more advanced people were developing their cities, the destructive pandemics appeared and quickly spread in many countries with the tragic news of the lack of human science to bring about the needed cures.
The world today is sadly experiencing such an epidemic described by medical science with the code name "Covid-19" and which has already spread in only a few months in many nations of the world. Various research groups have reported the spread of this pestilence from the identified starting place somewhere in China from where the infections may have spread to other countries in Asia, Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, Africa and other areas. At this point, governments and other sectors have been feverishly rushing to find the needed remedies to this disastrous health crisis. To recall briefly, some similar pandemics in world history have included the recorded earliest pestilence in Greece in 430 B.C. The following century saw the disease spreading known as the "Justinian Plague" and appearing also in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Another historic disaster was the notorious "Black Death" in 1550 and another crisis arrived with the Spanish expedition in the Caribbean region in 492 which coincided with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in America.
With these disasters, this column shares the views of several notable organizations in countries that have already experienced damage from these pandemics. Related to the responses that have been mobilized in various countries, one major historical lesson is the positive, science- based and unified actions of countless people to cooperate in various ways with their private and public institutions to find the eventual cures in the various nations affected. While the situation varies in different countries, the cooperation of millions of people involved will hopefully bring about the early solutions to this disaster. Already, there is positive news in the USA assuring the passage under the Pres. Biden anti-pandemic stimulus program and massive vaccinations with the cooperation of other nations to bring about the historic solution to this disaster. For our Filipino people, the more effective responses should also consider the genomic aspects. We are proud of our heritage as neighbors of East Asia, the mixture of various Asian as well as European groups. Even centuries ago, we were already a destination of Malay, Polynesian, Chinese, Hindu and later with American, European and other migrants. In the later years, genome technology has experienced the changes in the global world. The story of our people and our studies on this crucial culture will help us in addressing this crisis today and in the coming years. The challenges for all countries concerned on this pandemic involve the sustained, unified, scientifically studied medical efforts supported by the urgent related socio-economic programs by all countries concerned.