Kind Words for the Surviving Loved Ones of COVID-19 Victims

Please get your free COVID-19 vaccination.

Yes, be vaccinated to protect yourself and others.

My purpose for coming up with this write-up is to share the realities of the pandemic in our native country, the Philippines. The data from the WHO site says that the Philippines’ Department of Health recorded 181,9511 active cases as of 12 September 2021.

Since August, I’ve been getting death notices on my FB newsfeed at an average of two per day. I won’t discuss the stats that we read over the news but let me share my real-life statistics based on my 4,113 friends on Facebook. Most of them are from the Philippines.

So far, all the Covid-related death notices that I got from my FB newsfeed, which I can confirm, are from people who haven’t taken the vaccine. I’ve got friends who got Covid, but they only got minor symptoms, loss of smell, because they have been vaccinated, and their exposure to the virus wasn’t much.

I have a pastor friend who ministers with market vendors and other public places. Though vaccinated, he suffered from mild to severe COVID-19 symptoms, but he told me that he could have been gone without the vaccination.

He shared that his friend who runs in marathon races, who wasn’t vaccinated, survived the coronavirus but permanently damaged his lungs. He can barely walk, my pastor friend said.

Lately, the death notices have spiked. Last Friday, I got five death notices from FB friends whose relatives or friends died of Covid. Over the weekend, there were a total of six deaths from Covid.

On Monday, 20th September, I read that a colleague at the university where Jewel and I worked died of Covid. I also read a seminary classmate’s post that his mum died four days after their mum.

Before going to bed yesterday, 21st September, I counted five death notifications from my FB friends.

This morning, 22nd September, before writing this post, I wrote my condolences to two of my friends who had freshly posted notices of their loved ones’ death.

I don’t have the facility and luxury of time to examine whether or not they were vaccinated but the fact that they all died because of Covid.

Now, apart from the condolences and sympathies that I can express to my friends, telling them to get a COVID-19 vaccine is an act of kindness.

Please don’t wait until deaths and suffering will surround you before you will be convinced.

Please get your free COVID-19 vaccination.