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A Rising Concern for the COVID Resurgence and the Fatigue Humanity Faces Against a Protracted Warfare

Posted in Political Opinion Piece, tagged coronavirus, COVID, COVID variants, Ishii Masanori, Japan Olympics COVID, Reality of COVID on July 14, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Prologue: Then and Now

At the end of 2019, an infectious disease named COVID-19, a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began to spread from Wuhan, China. The epicenter of this outbreak soon moved from Asia to Europe, then onto the North America. On March 11^th, 2020, World Health Organization announced it as a pandemic by the alarming levels of spread and severity.[1] The current status of its confirmed cases is 7,751,747 with the total death toll of 429,062 and still rising with 188 countries and regions affected.[2] Amidst the acceleration of globalization, each country has taken drastic measures to shut down the borders and put restrictions on travellers. Domestically as well, countries took decisive measures to ensure the public health. The approaches taken by each country differed from country to country. The International consensus is that it is best to social distance and wear masks whenever you are with other people, reducing the risks of transmission of the virus. One of the most problematic features of this disease is that its incubation period is about 14 days and some who carry the virus may not show any symptoms, thus unknowingly infecting others. This was of a great concern to the health experts as this mysterious virus affects the most vulnerable at a higher risk. In particular, the elderly and those who already suffer from various illnesses are deemed most vulnerable to critical condition leading to death. In addition, countries with diverse ethnicities put those who are poor and who belong to other minority backgrounds at a greater disadvantage. As European countries began to impose a lockdown on the society to prevent medical care systems from collapsing, restaurants and all non-essential businesses were closed indefinitely. The United Kingdom, at first, regarded this virus as non-threatening and refused to put a lockdown in favour of economic growth, only to change its course after the hospitalization of its prime minister, Boris Johnson, who got infected with this virus. By the beginning of March, virtually most countries imposed a lockdown or similar restrictions, seeing that a temporary lockdown would better slow down the spread of the virus and bring back the economic growth in a long-run. The United States of America, however, continued to prioritize the economic momentum despite having declared the national emergency on March 13^th – 2 days after WHO declared the coronavirus as a pandemic. President Trump downplayed the virus for over months, assuring the public that everything was under control. The Trump Administration kept ignoring the advice from the health experts and never issued a lockdown, leaving each state to decide what to do. The majority of the states imposed some forms of lockdown, as the Federal Government would not do. As of March 8^th, 2020, the total confirmed cases in the U.S. was about 500 with 22 deaths, but a month later on April 8^th, 2020, the numbers went up to over 430,000 reported cases with 14,000 deaths. Even well into April, President Trump insisted the economy must be prioritized and criticized the states that imposed stay-at-home orders. As of June 14^th, 2020, the U.S. ranks the top most infected country with 2,071,782 confirmed cases and 115,347 deaths.[3] This was the result of on-going mishandling of the situation, encouraging its citizens to hold public events and signaling that the virus is well under control by the president himself refusing to wear masks in public gatherings. Still, many tried to remain cautious and minimized the human contacts, facing the reality of the rising cases.[4]

That was back then on June 14, 2020. Now, it is July 14^th, 2021, yet the situation is decidedly not getting better despite the non-humanly rapid development of the vaccines now widely available in many developed countries. In a larger picture, in fact, things are almost getting much worse. For instance, the vaccine roll-out increased in the United States of America, particularly since the beginning of the year 2021, toppling 333,779,632 as of July 14^th, 2021.[5] This number indicates almost 70% of the U.S. citizens have been vaccinated either fully or partially. Yet, almost in relation to the vaccine roll-out, the cases are on the rise and 33,910,391 COVID infections have been reported. This is over 16 times higher than the reported cases 13 months ago. The death rate seems to be, thanks to the vaccinations, slowing down, but the number is still 607,742 deaths – just over 5 times increase in the last 13 months. Since the beginning of the year 2021, most developed countries opposed, or grew tired of, lock-downs that had been sporadically put in place. This is due to the fact that the many people were vaccinated against the COVID-19, and also because the businesses had been completely shuttered and devastated during the repeated lock-downs. Many have simply “had it enough” and the vaccination did greatly help reduce the risks of getting infected with the virus, and even if we get infected, the data showed that we would not comparatively “get seriously ill” – what a vague and not assuring phrase when talking about once in a century scale pandemic! But in truth, so many less people developed the immune systems to fight against the virus that there is no doubt in saying that the vaccinations put an end to the propagation of the disease, so it seemed.

Interlogue: The COVID Fatigue and the Variants

Perhaps, it is better phrased as “so people wanted to believe it to be” than “so it seemed.” Although the vaccinations have certainly helped, right about from April, a variety of distinct variants of COVID began to appear as if to fight back against the hurriedly mass-produced vaccines. Among them, some of them have shown a strong resilience to the currently available vaccines, often referred to as “Alpha-variant,” “Delta-variant,” and “Delta-Plus variant”. Although each of them seems to affect people differently and also some are not as damaging to the people who have been vaccinated, while the opposite cases have also been reported from all over the world. While the scientific research in Britain showed that the Pfizer vaccine is 92% effective against the new Delta variant[6], Israel scientifically concluded that it is only 64% effective with the same Pfizer vaccine down from previously reported 94% effectiveness.[7] The similar kinds of dissimilar research results are popping up in various countries.[8] In other words, what is scientifically is true until proven otherwise and it is not in any way definitive. At this point, the personal experiences from COVID patients may be more reliable than the scientific data. These fluctuating scientific reports have lasted long enough, while in reality, the people are losing their jobs, committing suicides due to the COVID related issues, and unable to cope with the higher unemployment rate. In other words, the economy has been devastated and people are constantly asked to stay indoors and cancel all public events on one day and on the next day they are told the vaccines brought them victory, only to be re-told that they are at a greater risk with the variants. People have been misinformed either deliberately or not and each part of the world is acting independently that there seems to be no universal consensus as to what needs to be done. Bluntly speaking, even though this is a pandemic in the globalized society, there is no International collaboration or fixed guidance from the top. This led people to freely interpret what this virus does to whom and just so long as “one” is fine, she or he can do whatever they want. In fact, despite the resurgence of the COVID cases in many parts of the world, the U.S. has lifted essentially all restrictions, while the U.K. is also lifting all mandates on July 19^th of this year. Yet, France has just issued a new concern and, while “lifting all restrictions”, people are required to get fully vaccinated and public gatherings are limited.[9] One must wonder what the word “restrictions” mean exactly in the light of this oxymoronic message. Furthermore, Australia continues its partial lockdown,[10] while Japan is planning to host the Olympics Game from July 23^rd during the state of emergency, requiring the restaurants to either close until Aug. 22^nd or open on condition that they do not offer alcoholic beverages.[11] Russia rejects a new lock-down despite the record virus deaths. India is being indecisive as to a complete lockdown as the cases rise.[12] Brazil continues its lockdown amid the surge in COVID-19 cases at least until July 15^th.[13] Vietnam newly imposed a lockdown just recently due to the outbreaks of coronavirus.[14] As you can see from all these measures taken by countries, the restrictions as well as infected cases vary dramatically, regardless of the vaccine roll-out. Vaccines, in fact, are used as an excuse to party while no countries mutually agree on the effectiveness of the vaccines even of the same brand. UEFA’s Euro 2020 is already contributing to the COVID spike in many parts of Europe. The U.K. welcomes over 60,000 spectators without masks or social distancing, also allowing public indoor gathering on the way to and way back from the stadium.[15] As one supporter responded to a Japanese reporter, “this is once in a life time event. I don’t care if I have to get quarantined after this.” The U.S. is also in celebration mood, even though the total death toll has just reached over 4 million people according to WHO as of July 7^th, 2021. Just only one year ago, masks were seen as essential and scientifically proven to work, yet just within a year, masks are once again associated with the oppressor of freedom without any scientific basis. How fast people change and forget their own views in a matter of one year! The supporter who replied to a Japanese reporter that he did not care even if he had to quarantine does not realize that other people do, and people may die because of him.

In sum, in all over the world, the cognitive dissonance is at play for all to see. While UEFA EU football tournament and the U.S. Independence Day are celebrated as the liberation from COVID, the Tokyo Olympics is shunned and shamed as irresponsible, even with no spectators involved. While people are dying in an overwhelming number in East Asia, people in Europe and North America do not seem to care at all. In fact, they see COVID as a thing of the past. People do not seem to care anymore just so long as they themselves are fine or “protected” with the questionable effectivity rate of the vaccines. A pandemic is a global issue – it is by definition incoherent to declare victory over the highly infectious virus in some countries while many others are still in devastation. The lockdown fatigue is certainly playing a huge role in this but in the protracted warfare, whoever submits to fatigue is a loser. While it may not be necessary to impose upon a nationwide lockdown when the vaccinations are in progress, it still helps if people were considerate enough to wear masks, socially distance and avoid unnecessary gatherings.

Speaking of the fatigue, Japan is no exception. In the spring of 2020, Japanese citizens voluntarily closed their businesses temporarily and perceived human lives as more valuable than the economy. However, after the 4^th state of emergency, starting from July 12^th to Aug. 22^nd, people seem to have no longer a sense of fear even as the cases are rapidly increasing. The businesses too have gone astray over the past year without the government’s support. Restaurants are said to keep going bankrupt even if COVID magically disappeared as of to-day, unless they could maintain 200% capacity of customers or double the price of their menu. While Tokyo has issued the state of emergency, the Olympics are still on. Restaurants and public events, in the meanwhile, are strongly discouraged and frowned upon by the government for the sake of safety of the citizens. The IOC chairman, Mr. Thomas Bach, just the other day held a meeting about how successful the Tokyo Olympics would be and how best the committees were trying to keep the citizens of the host country safe – i.e. Japanese people – misspeaking and said “Chinese people,” clearly not caring anything about the people. In that kind of environment, it is virtually impossible to ask the people in Japan to stay indoors and watch the Olympics on TV, since it is too dangerous to actually go to the stadium to see the Olympics in their own country. There is no shred of conviction. This resulted in people drinking outside until late, gathering publicly, since they could not go to the restaurants, contributing to the rising cases of COVID.[16] At this rate, it is entirely possible that athletes get infected with Covid-19 just before the games begin and for the duration of the games, many would be in quarantine that group sport events may not get enough athletes to play and get automatically disqualified or would have to play, say, soccer with 5 people in the team without a goal keeper, or for individual events like marathons, only 3 athletes may compete instead of 9, etc… In essence, the Olympics would no longer hold the status of “the festival of the sports.”

Epilogue: The Reality of COVID – To Fear It Properly

Having talked about the measures being taken (or not taken) in various parts of the world against COVID and its variants, it is probably best that we take a look at the fact about the current situation and do not succumb to the isolation fatigue. The only way to combat the issue is not to lose sight of what it is that we are fighting against. Recently, on April 24^th, a well-known Japanese actor, Ishii Masanori, contracted COVID-19 Alpha variant. In addition to being a professional actor, he is also an avid YouTuber. As such, as soon as he was diagnosed with COVID 19, he began to keep a video record of himself and what happens to a COVID patient. He initially thought he would get fine soon, as he is in his 40’s with no pre-existing condition and no chronic illness. His fever went up and down from 36.6C (97.88F) – 39C (102.2F) for 10 continuous days. Despite that, he felt like he was feeling better, only to find out that he could have died at any point and had to get hospitalized immediately. He found out how dangerous his condition was only thanks to the pulse-oximeter that measures the oxygen level in the blood. The typical Alpha variant patients experience various symptoms for many days and on the 7^th to 10^th day, the condition gets rapidly worsens and the patients die. What he thought to be just a strong flu turned out to be a life-threatening illness. He recorded all the daily activities and his conditions every day during the 10 days of home recuperation and 13 days of hospitalization. He then posted the clips on YouTube and talked about how dangerous COVID could be. He emphasized throughout the entire clips that he was only explaining and showing what happened to him, and that other patients could have completely different symptoms. He made sure not to generalize the virus and the symptoms but explained only the facts that pertained to his own case. The message he wanted to convey was exactly what has been elaborated earlier, that is, we need to neither fear COVID excessively nor take it lightly, but fear it properly. This includes the consideration for others by wearing masks, socially distancing whenever possible and getting vaccinated. He focused on telling the reality, the facts only, and not the truth, about COVID. Nobody knows the truth about this virus yet.

I had the privilege of watching his clips from the patient’s perspective and what it must be like to have this illness on YouTube. Immediately after watching the two clips – one on his home recuperation and the other on his hospitalization, I contacted him and asked if I could make subtitles for them in English so his clips would be accessible to the International audience. Because his clips are neither political nor vested in interest but only shows objectively as one patient of many who suffered through this disease, these clips ended up being most clear and unbiased of all the interviews or news programs I have watched on COVID patients. Further, since he committed himself recording every day, broadcasting his conditions and fever from Day 1 of his diagnosis, these clips take us into the actual journey the patients go through. For this reason, I thought it best to make them accessible to the International audience so they could see how it would be like when one who thinks of it lightly gets infected with the virus. The actor kindly got back to me promptly and gave me the explicit permission to make the subtitles and post the clips on my own channel, as his channel is more tailored towards Japanese audience (everything is in Japanese). With the world seemingly started to look like it has regained the sense of normalcy, a delusion, I firmly believe that his clips would serve and even save more people’s lives. I hereby would like to share the links to the clips so people would have access to them and freely share them to the people they care about who are uncertain about the current situation. All credits go to the actor, Ishii Masanori and my YouTube channel has the links to his channel as well, just in case you are curious about his life as a YouTuber. But more importantly, both he and I explain we have collaborated together and I only assisted him in making the subtitles and I pay a great homage to his courageous act of continuing to record even when he had a high fever. Thanks to him, I am convinced that many lives will be saved.

Part 1: Home Recuperation