Briones: The common cold

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Briones: The common cold

I’m surprised the number of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases has not shot through the roof considering how many people I know have gotten sick these past few days.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not asking for another surge. In fact, I’m glad that many people have regained their sanity and have started to treat a common cold like, well, a cold.

Stuffy nose. Runny nose. Headache. Sneezing. Fever. Of course, these symptoms often lead to loss of smell and loss of taste. Oh my.

Shouldn’t they get themselves tested? No one is stopping them. The danger there, of course, is if they do test positive for that, you know, then there will be hell to pay.

If they run a business, then mostly likely their business will have to shut down as their employees get contact-traced. If they are employed, then their fellow workers will have to undergo the swab to make sure they don’t have the bug.

And let’s not forget the barangay that knocks on your door to take you and your loved ones to an isolation or quarantine facility that is sometimes not the most hygienic. Unless you can afford to stay in a nice hotel, but that’s beside the point.

Anyway, the list of “inconveniences” go on.

To those who remember what it was like to come down with a cold before the pandemic arrived on our shores, it was no big deal. However, and it’s a big HOWEVER, to have a cold these days is like playing a game of chance.

If the people you interact with or the people in your household have no existing medical condition or are not considered vulnerable to the novel coronavirus, then there’s nothing to fear. But even that is no assurance that one of them will not contract the virus and end up losing their life. Although the scenario is unlikely, it can happen. And it has happened.

So where are we in this “damn if you do damn if you don’t” situation? Frankly, I don’t have an answer. I’m beyond Covid fatigue. I just want things to be the way they used to be.

I want to be able to have a drink at home after work, browse the internet for the latest news—right—and check the latest offering from “legitimate” streaming services— again, right. Oh wait! I do that now.

If it’s any consolation, the national government has finally acknowledged that lockdowns do not solve the problem of Covid-19, something that the people of Cebu Province have known since last year.

In the meantime, I should get something for this headache. Achoo!

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