So the president has continued his insistence of letting a vaccine dictate the end of his hold on the country. Disregarding the risk of rushing our way to it, or even the possibilty of not having one at all, there are reports of problem of dropping case numbers for some makers in the UK to get a good test going.

As of this writing cases in PH have climbed (disregarding the low death numbers), and whether this trend continues as we try to know whether this is the fabled "second wave," let's think of how the president will deal with the possibility that this short climb is isolated and will continue dropping while the vaccine is still a trial. Of course, assuming that he'll let Filipinos return to normal is too optimistic, he can't let this opportunity go to waste.

And based on the comments regarding this statement, everyone else has delegated their risk assessment to the all-knowing leader. Only a handful have dared point out the issue of how long everything has to halt for the sake of a vaccine, but oh please make us safe Mr. President.

What will most likely happen if cases start dropping and no vaccine is in sight is to rehash the old nth-wave scare, which can only go on for so long. With enough time people will realize these matters and eventually disregard the rules.

"But don't be complacent!" Is the new rally cry, as people do a slow return to civilization and every scaredy-cat fears that the stupid populace will think that the virus is gone and can go back to licking stuff and touching each other, as people usually do.

But really, there's reason enough to believe that the virus has petered out, and there's no need to fear any more. In fact, if this trend continues I can argue that even in the second wave there will be less deaths than recoveries.

If that's the case, what of the panacea that is the vaccine? If it does come out it might not even be as necessary as wanted, and Filipinos are still reeling at the last time an experimental vaccine was released en masse. Dengvaxia's caveat could have been fixed by waiting longer or putting it on the fine print, but good luck convincing every Filipino to take this new one.

There might be a good enough reason to believe that even without collective amnesia people will flock to the nearest syringe point. The insistence that this virus is really deadly has scared everyone enough that nothing else will convince them outside of a cure. To make matters worse, there are rarely any countering voices in the Philippines to matter. These two factors are enough to mingle with government reluctance to bring home the point of no return until vaccine, even if the official numbers say there's no need.

Well then, will the lockdowns continue? Not really. The welfare well will run dry, jobs will disappear, psyches will be wrecked and possible unrest can happen because that is just oppressive. So there will be a veneer of freedom but just enough to make sure no one complains. Stores will deal with limited capacities and lines longer than they should be, public spaces will be heavily monitored by magical pain lines. At least you don't have to stay in.

But the longing for the usual will prevail, and before you know it, no one is following anything any more. And soon enough this virus will be endemic and cause not even a blip in the lives of everyone. The government can't just lock them back in again; banking on the people being servile has its limit when they are no longer fooled

There is a solution, though: admit that this whole lockdown thing was an overreaction, a mistake, and open the country. The damages done by forcing everything to stop will be enormous, but alas, if you don't die of the thing, it doesn't matter. Now it has to.

Risk is everywhere, and no amount of safetying can imprison a people forever.