A new subvariant!

    Since only about 67 percent of the people in the United States are fully vaccinated, it is not a surprise that a new Omicron subvariant (BA.2.1.2.1), different from Omicron and Stealth Omicron, has emerged. It is supposed to take over Stealth Omicron as the dominant strain in the USA. This new virus is 25 percent more contagious and was responsible for nearly 50 percent of COVID-19 cases last week, up by 39 percent from a week before.

CDC’s unwarranted abandonment of its mitigating guidelines since April 2022, aggravated by the similar careless and dangerous premature advocacy by some Governors and other politicians to “stop masking and social distancing anywhere” for political correctness not to lose votes, has caused a massive increase in cases and countless deaths from COVID-19.

The conditions are not normal yet, still dangerous for children and adults alike. Unfortunately, we have other enemies during this pandemic: arrogance, stupidity, and political correctness, all worse killers than the viruses themselves. At least the viruses have an excuse, they have no brain.

Booster for kids

The week ending May 19^th witnessed more than 107,000 children-cases of COVID-19, a 72-percent increase from two weeks before, the 6^th consecutive weekly increase. So far, about 13.3 million children have been infected with COVID-19 in the United States,

many with the more contagious Omicron and Stealth Omicron variants. More than 1,100 children (0-18) died from COVID-19 in the USA.

The FDA announced that a third dose (booster) of Pfizer-BioNT COVID-19 vaccine is now authorized for children ages 5-11. This adjusted micro-dose is given 5 months after the initial 2 shots.

 Monkeypox

          Monkeypox is back in the United States. The first case this year was found in Boston on May 18, 2022, and another one in New York City the following day. A third case in Florida and 3 others are being investigated.

Monkeypox is a chickenpox-like viral infection, which has been discovered in the  United Kingdom, Portugal, and Spain. Some of these patients have not been to Africa, where this is more common. Monkeypox is seen in other countries but not expected to be a pandemic like COVID-19.

The public is advised to be vigilant but not to panic since Monkeypox is not as contagious as the COVID-19 and there are vaccines and medications for it. The common symptoms are fever, headache, backache, chills, muscle aches, tiredness, swollen lymph nodes, and skin rash on the face 1-3 days after the fever occurs.

Our stealth weapons     

In our battle against the deadly invisible SARS-CoV2 virus in this pandemic, we have three effective stealth weapons within us to defeat this nemesis: wisdom, love, and compassion for our fellowmen. These three essential personal virtues, when uniformly applied by a truly understanding society, can transform the CDC mitigating guidelines (hygiene, masking, distancing, avoiding non-essential travels, and self-quarantine at home when infections are still high) into a highly efficacious pre-emptive strategy that could prevent more millions of deaths and end this global catastrophe sooner.

Unfortunately, to some people the exercise of the freedom of choice to do what they want, regardless, “because I have the right to do what I want under the First Amendment,” is more important, even to the point of arrogant disobedience to the COVID-19 guidelines, resulting in more massive transmission of the virus, overwhelmed hospital system, more than a million deaths, and a devastated economy, in the United States, almost 4 million cases and greater than 60,000 deaths in the Philippines.

This selfish, unthinking, irrational, behavior has, without any doubt, significantly contributed to the more than 526 million COVID-19 cases and 6.3 million deaths worldwide, almost 85 million cases in America.

I have used masks and done social distancing since the pandemic started (and still do), not only because I am a vulnerable senior, but because, as a cardiac surgeon, I am very familiar with the benefits of my masking, to myself, and more so to others around me. Just like in the operating room where the entire surgical staff is disciplined to be ever-conscious of their behavior to maintain sterility, and fully garbed with a cap, mask, gown, and shoe covers to prevent contamination, the aim is mainly to protect the patient, less of the staff. The mask is to minimize “breathing germs” into the patient’s open cavity, chest, or abdomen. While this scenario is standard surgical practice, it is no less wisdom, love, and compassion for others.

There is no other way to end a pandemic the soonest without sacrificing some of our liberties and being compassionate to others. One person refusing to mask up, or get vaccinated, is enough to spread the virus and cause a pandemic, like Wei Guixian, the female vendor at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, the very first case of COVID-19 infection, discovered on December 8, 2019, who inadvertently caused the pandemic. Indeed, one infected person is all it takes to initiate a pandemic, as this and past deadly pandemics around the world have shown us.

The centuries-old proven effective evidence-based epidemiology protocol in the management of infectious diseases employs strict isolation, distancing, masking, hygiene, and urgent vaccination to prevent infection, transmission, and deaths, is obviously in conflict with some of our First Amendment rights.

Temporarily giving up the exercise of certain freedoms during this pandemic to save millions of lives is a necessary and noble option. The opposite majority also has the equal right to security, health, and life (not to be infected by those against masking and vaccination) and not to die. So, this is where wisdom, understanding, love, and compassion towards our fellowmen come in.

If we act without fairness and think only of ourselves, invoking every civil liberty in the book, insisting on behaving the way we want regardless of the deadly consequences to people around us, we must at least admit and feel remorseful that we will surely cause countless infections and kill many people, no matter how unintentional. The refusal to mask up and acquire the COVID-19 vaccines are deliberate choice, intentional, and negligent acts, transforming them into viral spreaders and potential killers.

So, wouldn’t exhaling or coughing the virus into the atmosphere, infecting others and causing their deaths, albeit unintentionally, like when someone inadvertently discharges a gun and kills some people (with dead people in both cases), be legally considered negligent homicide?

PHOTO CREDIT: Above images were from MNSBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, May 23, 2022.

Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, a Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus based in Northwest Indiana and Las Vegas, Nevada, is an international medical lecturer/author, Health Advocate, newspaper columnist, and Chairman of the Filipino United Network-USA, a 501(c)3 humanitarian foundation in the United States. Websites: FUN8888.com, Today.SPSAtoday.com, and philipSchua.com   Email: scalpelpen@gmail.com