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COVID-19 OUTBREAK IN THE PHILIPPINES: ITS IMPLICATION TO EDUCATION,

ECONOMY, PUBLIC HEALTH, AND SOCIETY

Coronavirus disease 2019 or most commonly known by the name COVID-19 but it is not the
formal name, according to International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses it is the "severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2", or SARS-CoV-2 because it is related to the virus that caused the
SARS outbreak in 2003(1). It is an infectious disease that has taken a toll on the world. The disease
causes respiratory illness (like the flu) with symptoms such as a cough, fever, and in more severe cases,
difficulty breathing. It first emerged in late December 2019, the infection since then has spread to
several countries and has become a pandemic. The origin of the said virus came from Huanan seafood
market in Wuhan, it is said that they sell live animals specifically pangolins and bats that have said to
have carry the infection, the virus resides in mammals and because of genetic mutation the virus tends
to adapt to its final host which is now humans. in the Philippines the first recorded infected person with
Coronavirus is a 38-year-old female Chinese national, on March 7 the first local transmission of
COVID-19 was confirmed. As per different articles, there was a similar virus that was detected in bats
in China in 2013, but it was not acted upon, meaning that we could have saved a lot of lives if the
scientist have recorded the signs, but at the same time we can’t blame them since last 7 years ago we
wouldn’t have thought that some people would go through lengths and start eating bats. Also it was said
that it could not have been directly from pangolins and they were merely victims “From the virology
evidence available to date, the virus is almost certainly from a species of bat,” says Andrew
Cunningham of the Zoological Society of London. (2) With the information that was gathered years ago
they could be great help especially in identifying how to create a cure or vaccine for COVID-19.

Since everything seemed to pause and so did our education system. Debates had happen since
schools started to opt for online classes and during online activities, many students have express their
thoughts and feelings since internet connections and signal in the province is not great, not only them
some students are not able to go to their provinces or homes and was left alone in their dorms or
condominiums by themselves. Our education system has not been great but let alone having to have
online classes in the midst of an pandemic. Urging to continues online classes will only force students to
leave their houses and go to public places like computer shops or to go to a ‘sari-sari’ store for data load
and is most likely to catch the virus since they are interacting with different people. “In the framework
of online classes, only students who can afford to have internet installed at home are those who can
access education. Thus, online classes are merely manifestations of the divide among social classes in
our studentry, when education should not be limited to a certain few,” (3) good thing there were
universities and schools who decided to stop online classes and online activities since it would be a
weight on the shoulder for students.

This pandemic has caused a world wide panic to everyone,a mess even, and in the Philippines
it lead to different kinds of scenarios. Before the first local transmission people have been panic buying
even buying PPEs or personal protective equipment that are meant for our front-liners, face masks are
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now in short supply despite the World Health Organization’s reminders that the general public doesn’t
really need to wear them, not only that but people are hoarding alcohols and hand sanitizers as well. In
line with that businesses as well as people have been taking advantage of the situation wherein they
double the price of products. Aside from this, there are small businesses that are affected by the
pandemic, famers, vendors, wet market, vegetables are getting ruined since we relay so much on the
importation of goods from different countries, now that everything has closed (airports, ports, etc) we
have no means to import good to our country. It also affects the tourism in our country, due to the
lockdown no one is allowed to to go in and out of the country which means it would affect hotels,
accommodations, flights and the airlines. Overall our economy is not doing well and if we continue to
have this situation for months our economy will definitely go lower than it already is.

Amidst everything that is happening I think that our public health is a bit chaotic, there are
mayors who tend to print out their names on eco-bags rather than putting that budget onto things that
could be helpful for the people in the community. There are also honorable mayors who are during their
job as public servants. I must say that people have been feeling the anxiety and the fear from this
pandemic, and I think the government is not helping, rather than helping the people to feel calm they
just feed more anxiety to the public. A lot of people even celebrities are expressing their thoughts and
disbelief to our government, instead of giving thanks to our front-liners and trying to get enough PPEs
and supplies for everyone they continue to praise other countries. They say that if this pandemic
continues we would not have enough budget for everyone. The public is raging in fear and anger, two
emotions that shouldn’t be mixed, and I understand them, they don’t have any money to buy food for
their family, they are starving. The government still thinks that its some sort of propaganda and the
words “shoot to kill” would only cause much more fear, rather than threatening our fellow countrymen
let us help them, let us all check our privileges, it doesn’t mean that “nag rereklamo tayo” would cause
harm, some are afraid to speak up and let their voices be heard, so lets step up for our fellow
countrymen let their words be heard through our voices, since the our government is busy trying to
think where to get funds for the next months but there is still no breakdowns for the 275 billion
emergency fund for COVID-19.

References
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1. https://www.newscientist.com/term/covid-19/#ixzz6JDHPJAX8

2. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24532693-700-we-discovered-a-coronavirus-similar-to-the-
covid-19-virus-7-years-ago/#ixzz6JOyoHv8r

3. https://www.rappler.com/nation/255504-students-urge-suspension-online-classes-coronavirus-
lockdown