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The Wuhan visit

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Twinkling with Ninfa R. Leonardia

Since when did hospitals become a fearful place for  people who are not sick? I am sure everybody knows the answer to that now. These days when there is such an ailment that has been recklessly spreading around the world, that is.  I believe that never in the lifetime of most, or majority of the people now existing in this world, has there been so much fear of infection from a newly discovered disease caused by an also new virus spawned in the city called Wuhan in China.  

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The wonder is the speed in which it spread, not only to Asian countries, but to so many others, including Europe, the Americas and others. When are we going to see signs of its conquest? The latest hope comes from the introduction of vaccines against it, but we have no statistics yet about their efficacy. This seems to be different from the childhood diseases like chicken pox, measles, and even flu, that were so easily conquered by medical developments. I hope I am wrong when I assure myself that our country has not been as hard hit as others. And let us all pray that is so, and that modern medicine may soon find a way to vanish it.

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But COVID is not the only problem hounding countries now. The latest is the Myanmar uprising, where the military reportedly took over and declared it under Martial Law. Was it a benign Martial Law like what we experienced, or one that involved military encounters and mortalities? What happened to its civil government, reports I gathered were not quite specific. Has it appealed to other countries for help? What a time for a country to be troubled  by its own military!

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How can we avoid mentioning the COVID pandemic that has been going the rounds of so many countries so far? And it is not the only problem hounding world population, some countries are suffering from severe cold, and even Baguio City has reported temperatures of 9.4 which, even for that area, is a bit too much already. Mexico had also been hit by a hurricane, that left some people homeless, but that was years ago already. What else can we expect from the Weatherman these days?

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Yesterday, I went to the hospital – two hospitals, rather – for my regular check up and lost my way, in a manner of speaking. I had forgotten that there are now so many hospitals in our city, and many doctors are commuting among them, so one must confirm first where your physician is. I thought it was okay because we had called the doctor’s clinic and confirmed the date and time. But alas, we forgot about their “ambulatory” system these days. I guess that shows how progressive the medical profession is, so don’t discourage your children if they show signs of wanting to join it.

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By the way, whose brainchild was it to require car owners to install seats for children in their vehicles? I hope people like me are exempted, because I have no kids to accommodate. Requiring people like me, therefore, would be a superfluous law, since no minors ride with me anyway. If they make that a legal requirement, that would just be another superfluous one – and expense, too.  Funny, because children of school age can seat themselves properly and use the seat belts, while babies should be held by their mothers or “yayas” anyway.

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Why was President Duterte quoted as saying that the European countries are hiding the COVID vaccines “hostage”? Are they not willing to share or sell to others what they have, or even just the formulas for them? People who are paranoid about this COVID have reason to be. Seems new variants are popping up now and then and the other day  a news report said that a patient in Brazil was found to be suffering from two variants of the disease at the same time! So it also has “double jeopardy” capacities!

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By the way, it was reported late last week that a team from the World Health Organization or W.H.O. has gone to China, and specifically to Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus first showed itself and later spread to various countries. Were they welcomed by the Chinese government, and got the cooperation of its medical people? So far, I have not heard about the result of that study, but it would be interesting if the team also finds a way to counter the spread of the disease it has brought to so many countries. How do we know now if it would have been stopped immediately, had the scientists been allowed to go there and make studies sooner?*

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