The real cost of COVID immunity
While the world’s most advanced nations are turning into COVID hotbeds, the Global South is touting open beaches, street parties disguised as political rallies, and best of all, natural immunity. Is it just karmic justice for months of vaccine hoarding or is it #PoorPrivilege?
The Global South holds out against COVID-19
In a statement last Friday, Health Minister Gunadi Sadikin announced that about 87% of Indonesia’s population have COVID-19 antibodies according to a state survey.
The survey, held last November to December, showed positive results even though less than half the population were fully vaccinated at the time. According to experts, this level is enough to prevent severe illness.
While the survey hadn’t taken Omicron into account, a study shows that natural immunity is still 60% effective against the more antibody-evasive variant. Now, Indonesia’s over Omicron too. Considering they topped 50,000 cases a day in July, it’s easily a well-deserved break.
South Africa saw a sharp downturn in Omicron cases and hospitalizations mid-December as well. Back in November when Omicron was first discovered there, the world was quick to close borders on the country. A jerk move, as officials had called it.
Now, they’re faring better than the same countries that kept them out. Despite only a quarter of the population being fully vaccinated, a recent study shows greater immunity caused by reinfections resulted in milder cases and faster recovery times in South Africa.
In the Philippines, political sorties turned street parties attended by as much as 137,000 people have overtaken COVID-19 in headlines in recent weeks. Last Monday, the Department of Health published their weekly bulletin which showed 510 daily cases locally—a 13% drop from last week’s average.
Costly testing could be to blame for lower numbers, but if it’s just a slight cough or cold, why bother, right?
Additionally, severe or critical cases made up only 12.3% or 805 of total admissions.
A systemic burden turned costly privilege
Once upon a time, we had to fill out physical contact tracing forms each time we bought groceries, we had to fill out more papers while in line at the hospital to get tested or treated, and possibly worry about reimbursing elusive healthcare claims after. We also had to wait months for a vaccine, only to be given a shot that was 50% effective against COVID.
For two years, Filipinos got used to the analog and anomalous. Then one day, we reached Alert Level 1 (talks are in for a Level 0, but that’s beyond our comprehension).
South Korea, touting one of the world’s most advanced contact tracing and healthcare systems, recorded as much as 620,000 cases last week. Still, credit is due to the country’s consistent mass testing and vaccination efforts which have kept deaths and concerns low.
South Africa has lost nearly 100,000 people, on top of those lost to deprioritized non-COVID diseases like HIV. Indonesia and the Philippines suffered economic losses as well, with 4.7 million pushed into extreme poverty in 2021. And those aren’t just numbers—they’re human lives too.
So if you’re a little impressed with a few hundred cases a day, thanks. Our countries had to jump through hoops of fire to get to this level of hybrid immunity. It’s a cause for celebration, but a cause for caution over what’s to come next too.
