“NOTHING in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more so that we may fear less.” - Marie Curie, a Polish and French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity.
The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has led to a rise in fear, anxiety, stress, and depression among the population said a group of Spanish researchers led by Antonio Rodriques-Hildalgo.
His team concludes by highlighting the critical role that the complex relationships between fear, stress, and anxiety can play in developing depression symptoms and how they can be taken into account in programs aimed at preventing and alleviating this disorder.
Along the same line, the World Health Organization recently stated that fear, worry, and stress are normal responses to perceived or actual threats. At times, people face uncertainty or the unknown. So, it is normal and understandable that people are experiencing fear in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
WHO continues by saying that “added to the fear of contracting the virus in a pandemic are the significant changes to our daily lives. Our movements are restricted in support of efforts to contain and slow down the spread of the virus.Faced with new realities of working from home, temporary unemployment, home-schooling of children, and lack of physical contact with other family members, friends and colleagues, it is important that we look after our mental, as well as our physical health”.
In a study published in December 2020 entitled “Psychological impact of Covid-19 pandemic in the Philippines," a research team led by Michael L Tee has revealing observations. They found out that “during the early phase of the pandemic in the Philippines, one-fourth of respondents reported moderate-to-severe anxiety and one-sixth reported moderate-to-severe depression and psychological impact.”
That proportion will expectedly increase given the latest upswing in Covid-19 cases.
The government blames the more contagious variants of the coronavirus for a record surge in Metro Manila infections.
In the meantime, long queues at emergency rooms have forced people to go from one health facility to the next in search of treatment.
In the Philippines, over the past two weeks, the country has been exceeding the record number of new cases daily.
Metro Manila alone accounts for 40 percent of the country’s economic production, and the road to financial recovery depends on imposing lower restrictions and further opening up of businesses.
Meanwhile, London-based global think tank Capital Economics stated that the recent spike in COVID-19 cases made it more difficult for the country to rebound from the pandemic.
It predicted that the situation in the Philippines is now looking grave.
It said that “the economic outlook in the Philippines has gone from bad to worse over the past month. The main problem is a surge in virus infections, of around 10,000 new cases of COVID-19 each day”.
The country’s slow vaccination rollout will further hold back the recovery.
Perhaps surprisingly, Philippine firms are optimistic, as revealed in a central bank survey. The overall business confidence index in the first three months of the year improved to 17.4% from a reading of 10.6% in the fourth quarter of 2020, based on the Business Expectation Survey results released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
On the investment side, retail investors have become a force in the local stock market, making up for a slowdown in foreign investor interest.
Based on preliminary data from the Philippine Stock Exchange, retail investors accounted for more than 45 percent of market turnover in the first quarter of the year. This trend indicated a much bigger trade volume compared to their share of 26.9 percent in 2020 and 18.2 percent in 2019.
The pessimistic forecasts of economists will become real if fear continues to reign supreme. It will need a combination of bold and innovative health and economic tools to overcome the bleak predictions and for people to have enough courage to overcome fear. Whatever be these strategies and courses of action, this quote is worth remembering:
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”- Dale Carnegie, American writer, and lecturer.