By Nora Soriño
ILIGAN City ― Here’s some dialogue between a doctor and his patient:
Patient (coughing): “Doc, what’s wrong with me?”
Doctor (fiddling with stethoscope on his patient’s chest): “Do you have PhiiHeath?”
Patient: “Yes, doc.”
Doctor: “You have Covid!”
Of course, that’s some joke on FB.
Here’s another one:
In China, some blokes just collapse suddenly to the ground. The cause: Covid-19.
In the Philippines, a person sideswiped by a vehicle, a person falling from a wall for an early Christmas decoration, persons having diabetes, or hypertension, or leptospirosis, or any of the following: asthma, allergy, colds, heart attack, fever, appendicitis, etc., etc. All have Covid!
Those are meant to be “joke only” but they could be real. As real as Covid is real!
“Upcasing,” they are called. For obvious reasons. Here are some “upcasing” stories:
The father of Ms. L recently was experiencing cough and colds. Both antigen and RTPCR revealed that he was Covid positive. Costly Covid medicine proved ineffective. So the family had the father undergo another test ― sort of the second opinion.
Another test in another health facility proved he had pneumonia all right. But not of the Covid kind!
The father has since then recovered. With the standard pneumonia medicine. So..well that’s one example. I have others. Like this one.
A family in barangay Hinaplanon in this city had an aunt taken to a hospital here. This is per the narrative of a nephew. Because the asthmatic aunt had just eaten some !lobster and she had breathing difficulties. She died before her swab test result and was buried hurriedly like any other Covid victim. She didn't have Covid, just some serious allergic reactions to what she ate. And now ― another case of “upcasing?”
I could go on, present other cases. But I’ve made my point. So for the moment, I’ll stop there. No, on the other hand, here’s another point: A post said there are three kinds of rock, sedimentary rock, igneous rock, and metamorphic rock. Lately, there is another kind, the “wina rock.” This “rock” has the likeness of DOH Secretary Francisco Duque lll over it.
This could be real too. As real as it can get. In an unreal world!
(Email: norasorino2@gmail.com)
