The Philippine Star January 1, 2022 | 12:00am As if the COVID-19 scourge weren’t enough, the year drew to a close with millions of people struggling to recover from the devastation unleashed by Super Typhoon Odette across large areas of the Visayas and Mindanao. Battling COVID was the principal preoccupation throughout the year. Hopes for winning the battle were buoyed by the arrival in late February – delayed as it was by someone “dropping the ball” on the Pfizer / BioNTech jab – of vaccines made in China. Victory against the invisible enemy, alas, remained elusive. Even as vaccination slowly…