Fact Checked Source: Chia-Yi Hou, "6 Dangerous Myths About Coronavirus"
 

Looking Deeper: Five Facts Checked

Myth #1: You should avoid people of Asian ethnicity because they are more likely to have coronavirus

Myth #2: You shouldn't accept packages from China of other Asian Countries

While much of the world's current focus is on the rapid spread in Italy, Spain, and the US, it is clear that the potential impact of the world's poor - the majority of whom live in Asia - will be devastating.

Washing your hands with clean water and soap, or hand sanitizer can help prevent the spread of the virus

Episodes such as the Philippines response to the dengue vaccine risk, despite its benefits, are signals of deep dissent and distrust that needs to be considered in advance of a pandemic.

Analytic Essay

A Questionable Government: The Perspective of the Poor in the Philippines on COVID-19

I chose the perspective of the Filipino people to not only put this discussion in a multi cultural context but also to illuminate not only others, but myself as well as to the circumstances in my families’ homeland. At the beginning of the outbreak the Filipino people were in shock and panic like the rest of the world, however unlike the decision made here in the United States, the Filipino government took a more “cut and dry” stance on the matter. During the first week of the pandemic, the capital city of Manila was completely shut off from the rest of the country. The homeless and impoverished lined the streets of the capital, at a distance of 1.5 meters from each other, waiting for the doors of the Kalinga (Care) Center to open to maybe get tested or to receive some treatment. However, before the people could receive any help the head of the barangay, which is basically the village council, ordered for the clinic to be shut down and the people were driven away, all under the pretense that “they were just following the law of no mass gatherings” (Coronel, 2020). As you can see this is already vastly different from the policies here in the US; even though we discourage public gatherings, we, on the other hand, encourage the people to get tested if they feel like they are experiencing symptoms, and at least the hospital quickly screens individuals, instead of shutting down their only means for medical care. 

This once again shows the “cut and dry” viewpoint taken by the Filipino government who would rather follow a law of maintaining social distancing, instead of following the first law - “to save lives” (Coronel, 2020). On March 15th, President Duterte of the Philippines declared a mandatory month long quarantine in the capital, and later in the island of Luzon, following a spike in cases of COVID-19. If you think quarantine is bad here in the US, the quarantine in the Philippines is enforced with Duterte's “iron fist” (Coronel, 2020). Citizens in quarantine are required to follow a curfew that spans from 8pm-5am, and anyone caught disobeying the law, was immediately arrested on site, no questions asked, by the many policemen and army soldiers lining the streets and manning various checkpoints along the way.

With the situation being as bad as it was already, these ill conceived laws are making the lives of thoses who have not yet recovered from the recent war on drugs, who were barely scraping by, and are now unable to work, nearly impossible. One of the fighters on the frontlines is a priest in the capital city of Manila, named Danny Pilario, who was risking his life to give food and supplies to the widows of drug war victims and their neighbors living in the Payatas garbage dump in the north side of the city. This alone was hard, because the Payatas was a “red zone” for the corona outbreak, but on top of all that he had to worry about getting arrested by the police/army every time he made his runs, so after a while he resorted to sending them all money instead so they could buy what they need. (Coronel, 2020) 

In this time where the government and the people of all classes and social standing should work together and support each other to get through this terrible pandemic, unfortunately, in the Philippines this just isn't the case. With families stacked on top of each other like a pack of sardines unable to move anywhere else in the slums, there is no such thing as "social distancing". With no running water, how is washing your hands supposed to be possible. And on top of all that, wit barely enough money to afford enough to eat, sometime not even this is the case, how are they expected to buy items like hand sanitizer. With the closest thing to a solution being a makeshift effort put together by local governments, civic groups, churches, and ordinary citizens, the situation in the Philippines is not looking too good. Especially with a leader who played down the severity of the virus by saying things like, "Filipinos have natural antibodies that would shield them from infection." In conclusion, while times are most certainly rough in countries like the US, I feel that more attention should be called to aid the poor citizens of the Philippines who are fighting a losing battle.
 

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