Lessons from COVID19: advocacy toward the vulnerable.

To the editor

We can live a meaningful life forward by ‘connecting the dots backward’. These ‘dots’ refer to the eidos or meaning of our lived experience. In ‘Facing the future—what lessons could we learn from Covid-19?’ the editor posed a timely but difficult question. It is relevant because the current death toll worldwide, the increasing number of infections, and the re-emergence of new cases in countries that supposedly vanquished or controlled the disease attest to the devastating effect of COVID-19 on the entire globe. The question also leads us to a staggering realization and a challenge: ‘The specter of a virulent, deadly global pandemic’ has become a reality. How can we deal with it?

COVID-19 is the biggest global health crisis this generation had known. The editor correctly pointed out that since it ‘is a new virus, different countries are dealing with it in different ways’ and that ‘countries that seem to have tackled the pandemic are those with good leadership’. Indeed, an effective and efficient government is critical to keeping the health and well-being of the citizenry. However, we would like to add that aside from the government, another social institution such as religion has also been critical to the infection prevention and control of COVID-19.

In the recent statement of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, they stated that there should be an early action and early responses to combat the virus. The need to better coordinate efforts on all institutions directly responsible for protecting the people is an important lesson learned from COVID19. Echoing Sridhar Venkatapuram’s insight that there is a need to ‘create and engender moral motivation among those who can prevent millions of human deaths and create conditions for good health within and across countries’. The Catholic Church implored the global community to ‘intensify efforts to protect the most vulnerable, namely the poor, the millions of refugees, migrants, and those who are forcibly displaced because of the health crisis’. Furthermore, the Catholic Church advocates ‘social cohesion irrespective of social, technical or health policy agenda’. Interestingly, it also promoted social distancing, saying ‘the act of staying at home is an act of profound solidarity. It is to love your neighbor as yourself.’

Acknowledgment

No funding was received for this paper

Authorship contribution statement

CDBDC performed the drafting of the original manuscript. FADC conceptualized and edited the study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.