By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
It was terrible. This was the comment of the son of a court officer who died more than a month ago because of covid. His inability to surmount the disease was due to his bad lifestyle for many decades that resulted in a kidney disease. He was the kind you would frequently see in drinking places enjoying their pulutan and inumin ng tunay na lalaki.
In his dying moments it was the son in his 30s who was taking care of him. The son got infected and he really suffered for it. He was in high fever and constant coughing for two weeks so he became very week. At one time when he went to the CR which was just a few steps away, he almost collapsed.
He did not lose his sense of taste. It was the other way around—anything, no matter how bland, would taste so salty or so sweet. Young that he was, he was able to survive, but had also to go through post-covid symptoms such as losing his sense of taste.
The other day, I saw one of the lawyers of City Hall who used to look good as he was taking care of his health by watching his diet and having regular exercise. But in his photo on FB yesterday, he lost a lot of weight and looked wan and weak. He was just discharged from the hospital. He is now recovering from covid, along with his son whom he infected.
His wife got the virus also but because she got her two doses of the covid jab, she was asymptomatic and did not have to be hospitalized. The husband was actually waiting to get the second dose of his jab when he got hit.
Moral of the story is, those who are just partially vaccinated are still vulnerable.
I was happy the other day when I received a text message that an 82 year old client was scheduled to get her first jab that day. About three weeks ago, she came by and said that she was afraid to be vaccinated as she heard a lot of radio announcers citing the deaths of older people who died after being vaccinated. Its good that she later came around to accepting that getting the covid vaccine is a good idea.
Like the wife of the lawyer mentioned above, Senator Richard Gordon who was fully vaccinated got infected with the covid virus. At least he did not suffer in extreme pain. The only thing that showed his infection was his becoming a sleepy head.
Then there was that article in Time Magazine last week about Americans who did not want to be vaccinated, but when they were already dying because of covid, they were begging for the vaccine. Sorry, too late the hero.
At least Filipinos, in general, now like to be vaccinated. For many days now in Baguio City, people had endured the heavy rain in long queues to be vaccinated. Many even went to vaccination sites as early as 4:00 a.m. so they would be first in line. The problem is we are running out of vaccines.
The good news is, the Jansen vaccine, a one-shot jab, has finally arrived in the Cordillera. The Pfizer jab came earlier so a lot of Cordillerans got that.
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