Face Shield Nation

by Gideon Lasco

Face Shield Nation is a contemporaneous account of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, from the perspective of physician, medical anthropologist, and columnist Gideon Lasco. Drawing from his professional backgrounds in medicine and the social sciences, his critical scholarship, and his own lived experience of the lockdown, this book is addressed to future generations as well as our present one, for whom the memory of the pandemic, even today, is quickly fading. By “face shield nation,” Lasco calls attention to the uniqueness of the Philippine experience of a global phenomenon, as well as the materiality and corporeality of the country’s pandemic policies. Indeed, nationhood is at stake in living through, looking back to, and learning from the pandemic.

Genres: Nonfiction

186 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2024

About the author

Gideon Lasco, MD, PhD is a physician, medical anthropologist, and writer. He is senior lecturer at the University of the Philippines Diliman's Department of Anthropology, research fellow at the Ateneo de Manila University's Development Studies Program, and honorary fellow at Hong Kong University's Centre for Criminology. He is currently based in Mexico City where he is doing comparative research on COVID-19 responses, and language studies at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

His collection of essays, The Philippines Is Not A Small Country, was published by the Ateneo de Manila Press in September 2020, and his ethnographic monograph on human stature, Height Matters, The Making, Meanings, and Materialities of Human Stature in the Philippines, is forthcoming with the University of the Philippines Press. He is also the editor of Drugs and Philippine Society (Ateneo Press, 2021), a collection of critical perspectives on drug use and drug policy in the country.

Reviews

[Gab of Green Gables · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gideon Lasco has done it again—his work opened my mind to new perspectives and deepened my understanding of the many circumstances surrounding the global pandemic. I loved his other book "Philippines is Not a Small Country" and this new novel of his delivered so well.

From the lack of accessible green spaces for people to go because of being a mall-centric country so people are staying inside their homes, the impact of educational lockdowns on children's literacy, to the troubling militarized response of the government, Lasco thoughtfully examines these issues and more. This book not only fosters a renewed appreciation for having lived through such a crisis, but also evokes a sense of disappointment in how our country managed it. More importantly, it challenges us to become more engaged citizens—demanding accountability, advocating for meaningful change, and rethinking how governance should truly serve the people.

[Gabriela Francisco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gideon Lasco’s most recent book is a clear-eyed collection of essays that were written during the pandemic, a compilation of articles written as reactions to contemporary events. His is a unique and valuable perspective; as a Filipino physician/anthropologist, he had the opportunity to travel to many other countries while most of us remained home-bound due to quarantines with ever-changing letter combinations. Mixing memoir with medical expertise worth recounting, he was able to compare the Philippine pandemic response with what other countries were doing (Mexico, Thailand, Singapore, India, to mention a few), and write an objective yet ever optimistic book in the process.

(Read the rest of our review at https://exlibrisphilippines.com/2025/... )

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book's mission of writing about the pandemic for the purposes it elaborates on is commendable in itself. As for the book itself, it's a consistently strong read all throughout, with noteworthy insights and moving writing. I find it only brought back by some essays that feel less essential than others, typically being those that hold insights already mentioned before but are spaced too far apart to make effective explorations.

Overall though, it's a good read with a good mission. A solid recommendation for ANY Filipino !!

[Led · Rating 4 out of 5]

And when I see Narendra Modi declaring victory [against covid-19], insisting that everything is okay, and ignoring the suffering of his people, I see the emperor in my own country, naked in cowardice and shame, drunk with privilege and power, declaring that he’s doing an excellent job while watching his country burn. p.144

In formal, prudent, and at times indignant but still tactful fashion, Mr. Lasco offered a needed retrospective on covid-19 pandemic goings-on in the Philippines permitting the citizens, and more so, government institutions, to have a reckoning of the nation’s lived pandemic experiences.

The essays reflected the Filipinos’ social experiences (and isolation), stood on facts and scientific references, called out shortcomings and decision errors, examined their causes, offered rational solutions, and praised those that proved effective in managing the crisis. It further called the egoistic ploys by politicians that were performed more for their benefit than the public’s (medical populism) and the glaring repercussions of misguided initiative (covidization of healthcare) as to neglect other non-covid health concerns.

Indeed, one of the reasons people feared COVID […] is not because of the disease itself, but because of their fears over what might happen to them, including the expense they might incur. p.57

Some articles I appreciated better were The rise of LGU citizenship, The pasaway as scapegoat, Community pantries and the dependency myth, Parks vs. the pandemic, Our cultural thermostat, Not all lockdowns are equal, and Learning from Singapore.

Post-covid-19, to regress to languishing or waiting out a crisis (perfectly embodied by the failing Duterte) while taking ineffectual institutional-level response is just beyond consideration, even criminal. Combining hindsight and lessons from our firsthand experiences reinforced by best practices proven useful by other nations should be maximized to our benefit.

Pandemic or not, it is the government’s obligation to provide the Filipinos a functioning, humane, and reliable public healthcare system.