REPLAY KKK-COVID19 “MAHIRAP ANG MAGING
MAHIRAP: HOW ARE THE POOR COPING WITH COVID-
19”
Pandemic in the Margins: Situating COVID-19
Responses in the Everyday Lives of Urban Informal
Settlers in Manila
Dr. Maria Carinnes Alejandria, PhD
- Baseco Compound (52 hectares, 60,000 population,
estuarial community)
- In Focus: ECQ, Social Distancing, Washing Hands,
Balanced Nutrition
- Despite the efficiency of these recommendation,
their applicability is highly challenged by the
everyday realities of those who have been
marginalized by our system
ECQ
- Strict quarantine conditions
- In the outskirts of our society, we have a different
story to tell.
Disrupted informal economy
- majority are reliant on informal economy
- with the implementation of quarantine, they lost
their jobs
- the households are in a higher/more intense level
of food insecurity
- food insecurity is severely experienced in women
and older adults because they give way for the
younger people
- the limited food source received through donations
are mostly given to preferred members of the
society
Social (Physical) Distancing
- released on March 13
- maintain significant distance from each other
- Baseco: (typical floor area size 10-20 sqm) (number
of family members per house: 5-7) (multiple
functions for space)
Personal Hygiene: Wash Your Hands
- Lack of potable water source
- Expensive cost due
- Interrupted water distribution by Maynilad
- Others can only access dug up wells
Balanced Nutrition
- Majority of donations received are
canned/processed food
- Without income, residents have no capacity to
purchase fresh food
Manila Bay
- Diving in Manila Bay to collect crabs and fishes
- Shows Filipino resilience
- Problem: Are they really resilient? They got it from
Manila Bay. Toxicity of Manila Bay
Engaged Anthropology: Coming Down from the Ivory
Tower
- At this time, social scientists are in very
advantageous position.
- Knowledge about community and society to raise
awareness to the public – to have policy and
actions to alleviate sufferings of their community
partners
Collaborative Scholarship through Social Media
- Social media allows them to communicate with
their collaborators
- Inform them on their current status on COVID and
know their needs
- Rethink ways of doing anthropology now
Conclusion:
- Pandemic experiences are nuanced by age, gender
and space
- Public health policies must be revisited to include
vulnerable populations living in the “margins” of
society
- Anthropology has a key role in providing localized
context to public health policies
Beyond Flattening and Distancing: The Narrative of
Social Solidarity in the Real Frontlines of COVID-19
Dr. Joshua San Pedro, MD
“Flattening the curve”
- A popular discourse on COVID-19
- Model for community mitigation
 Interim Pre-Pandemic Planning Guidance:
Community Strategy for Pandemic Influenza
Mitigation in the United States (CDC 2007)
 4 Interventions
1. Isolation and treatment
2. Voluntary self-quarantine
3. Suspension of classes
4. Social distancing
And other individual-based approaches, such as cough
etiquette, hand hygiene, face masks
Individualization of Responsibility
- The metaphor of a face mask
 Subject to market forces, overpricing, hoarding
  Commodification of health and safety  Demanding action and accountability
 Scarcity and allocation
 Meaning-making = Interactions with authorities and Referrals to higher
 Disposable vs. medical vs. reusable levels of care

In line with neoliberal discourse The Narrative of Social Solidarity

 State abandonment - Community as the frontline
 Transformation from patient to client or purchaser - May be compatible with physical distancing
of care - Collective responsibility over individualism
- Enabling habitus
“Social distancing” & Social Distance - Counternarrative against popular discourse (based
Social Distancing on ethnographic data, social realities)
Physical Distancing - Critically exposes the social distance
- 1-2 meter distance  Between politicians and constituents
- No mass gatherings and public transportation  Between health workers and patients
- Work from home, online classes
“What the world needs now is solidarity. With
Core of ECQ solidarity, we can defeat the virus and build a better
 Checkpoints and curfews world)
 Enforced by uniformed personnel
Go beyond the discourse of flattening the curve
A privilege the poor cannot afford - We have to do active roles
- Communities demand government intervention =
Social Distance social protection, food, compensation and free
- Class divide in income and health = predates the health care
pandemic - Governments can do these if we demand it
- Privileged assumptions in health policy - Increase the aspect of care – not just in the level of
- Hospital-centric care hospitals but in the level of the community
- Othering of suffering - Further social solidarity, to have an improved
- Reinforced by a ‘pasaway discourse’ and an notion on health in the community
increasingly authoritarian narrative - Have a better notion of life that is better than the
status quo
Forgets about SOCIAL SOLIDARITY – needed in the level
of participatory part of quarantine The COVID-19 Pandemic: Who are the Most
Vulnerable?
Social Solidarity in the Setting of the Community Dr. Gideon Lasco, MD, PhD
Two community-based health programs (CBHPs) in - The pandemic as ‘multiple’. We cannot flatten the
urban poor and industrial areas: uneven ground with which the pandemic is
1. San Isidro Labrador Parish-based Health Program experienced by different people across
Bagong Silangan, Quezon City geographies, demographics and temporalities.
2. Samahan ng Manggagawang Kristiyanong - The pandemic as a ‘syndemic’. We cannot view
Pamayanan Novaliches, Quezon City COVID-19 in isolation from other health concerns,
and from its social, economic and political contexts.
Basic Need during a Lockdown: - We all know that the pandemic disproportionately
 Food and water affects the poor but we can unpack this truism
 Economic (lost income) further.
 Essential health services
 Housing and shelter Who are the Most Vulnerable?
 Human rights and dignity  Anticipating future pandemics, Philip Blumenshine
and colleagues (2008) identified three sources of
Active Community Engagement: health disparity in the event of major influenza
 Participation over enforcement outbreaks:
 Social awareness and conscientization

Disparities of Exposure
- Points to the impossibility of “social distancing” in
places where people live and work
 Those living in slums and densely populated areas
 Those who commute using public transportation
 Those who cannot afford to quarantine
themselves
 Particular groups
 Those in jails
Disparities in Susceptibility
- The virus’ effects are far worse among susceptibile
groups
 The elderly (65 years and older)
 Those with pre-existing conditions (including
obesity) – lung disease or moderate to severe
asthma, heart conditions, immunocompromised,
obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease
 Those who had been unhealthy and
undernourished
 Racial inequality
Disparities in Healthcare Access
- Applies to COVID-19 testing
- There are anecdotal reports of people not being
able to go to hospitals
To which I propose:
 Economic disparities in coping with quarantine
(food and economy)
 Social disparities (implementation of rules is
disproportionate)
 Disparities to health care and other services
- Mental health consequences of isolation,
anxiety, fear, stigma
- Noncommunicable diseases
- Nutrition and wellness
- Access to internet, utilities and space
- Even death has been put on hold
We cannot ‘covidize’ people’s lives by assuming that
the virus is their paramount concern.
The poor, in particular, are already facing numerous
disparities and existential threats, from economic
insecurity to the violence of the drug war; from TB and
fire, and the consequences of pandemic responses.
Our focus should be on people, not the virus.
What should government do?
 Address social determinants
 Increase health care capacity
 Identify and protect vulnerable groups
 Sensible and compassionate implementation
What should social scientists do?
 Assert the pandemic’s syndemic that cannot be
dissociated from its social, cultural and political
contexts
 Capture this moment for the future
A return to the Armchair
 Armchair anthropology have recast it as a more
thoughtful reprise
 We can no longer escape the virtual in our
methods and theories
 Look not as field sites but field events
A word of Caution:
 Risk of undermining other topics

Other Vulnerable Groups

 Migrants and refugees
 Seafarers and OFWs
 Women and children who face household abuse
 People who use drugs
 Political critics (amid governments around the
world using the pandemic to seize power)

Essentially, the pandemic amplifies pre-existing

vulnerabilities