Is it Near?

An update on the plague that is still infecting thousands of people everyday, not to mention the horrifying number of deaths as counted by Johns Hopkins, still sweeps the headlines, ahead of Trump's reelection bid, Joe Biden's pick for running mate, and China's national security legislation.

Now, Russia has announced that it has developed a vaccine for Covid-19, and the news says that Philippine President Duterte volunteered to become a "guinea pig" for it by saying he is willing to take the vaccine. Meanwhile, Sec. Pompeo has met with him and other government officials to say that the United States will invoke the mutual defense treaty against any threat from China, if it hampers navigation in the South China Sea.

As the pandamic claims many lives, and still counting, the situation in the Philippine war on drugs still continues. There are still rampant claims on violation of human rights, and travel is still restricted. Military and police presence still man the streets, as community quarantine paralyzes public transportation especially in the nation's capital.

Healthcare workers are asking the government to place the country in stricter community quarantine to relax the number of persons contracting the disease, as hospitals struggle to admit new cases due to lack of hospital beds.

The government admits it has already exhausted the government treasury and any further stimulus will run out of funds. The economy must open in the soonest possible time, as the last two quarters already posted contraction of gross domestic product which is seen to be a prelude to an economic recession at the end of the calendar year.

Still, the country's biggest media outlet is denied of a franchise, and it is seen as a blatant attack to freedom of speech. Legal remedies have been sought to challenge the closure order but was unsuccessful. Congress, who is responsible for the approval of the franchise, conducted extensive public hearings on the matter that put the company officials on the stand as if they were criminals, and generally responsible for making politicians look good on national television.

Everything seems to happen very quickly, but as news unfold with haste, the people are left wondering if the end is near. Politics seems to offer a lot of solutions for a health crisis which obviously needs scientific knowledge and not military measures. And, above all, we must be vigilant in times of moral crisis, which happens almost everyday as the news unfold.

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Picture from Pexels.