By Robert b. Roque, Jr.
The week began with the country’s COVID-19 caseload breaching the million mark. That’s not a good sign at all, even as health officials point out a downward trend in the rate of new coronavirus infections.
And no matter what angle I look through the “optimistic lens” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has been talking about in his Miss Universe statement to the press, there is nothing to be pleased about new COVID-19 cases by the thousands and scores of them dying every day.
Duque should be forewarned against downplaying mortality figures in this pandemic in favor of recoveries if only to paint a fancy picture of the government’s response. For instance, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is paying a heavy price for saying he’d rather see “bodies pile high in their thousands” than impose a third lockdown in the United Kingdom.
At least this time, our well-loved Health chief (by the President, that is) has seemed to echo the oft-appropriate recommendation of the OCTA Research Group, which lobbies for an extension to the lockdown in the epicenter of the COVID-19 explosion.
OCTA fellows believe the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite, and Laguna should be sustained until the healthcare sector capacity has significantly improved. It has been a rude awakening for us all to experience how an overwhelmed healthcare system could send an ambulance carrying a COVID-19 patient from Las Pinas all the way to Pangasinan just to find a vacant ICU bed. True story, folks!
Unintentionally, this brings us to the mystery of the bungling bed deal with the usual suspect being Sec. Duque, yet again. A newspaper’s source in a recent Cabinet meeting claims the DOH Secretary “got a dressing down” for allegedly missing out on the chance to acquire 200 ICU beds from an Austrian firm last October.
Duque, of course, denied having failed to act promptly on the opportunity or being reprimanded by fellow Cabinet members over the matter, which has reportedly angered overfatigued doctors in overran hospitals. Do you think he is just covering up for himself?
Perhaps not. In taking Duque’s side, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque did mention there actually were 200 hospital beds in question and that the same firm was renegotiating the deal with the government this week. Ano ba talaga, mga sir?
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Meanwhile, anti-vaxxers struck again this past week, circulating a lengthy post that combined scientific half-truths about the effects of COVID-19 vaccines and the death of Makati Medical Center’s chief of pathology, Dr. Joey Avila. Sincere condolences to his family and dynamic team at the MMC.
The circulating post apparently attempts to tie the good doctor’s death with his having been inoculated recently. Insiders from Makati Med tell me that this prompted their medical director to issue a classified internal memo to correct twisted facts contained in the post by an “MMC pediatrician.”
Be warned that six particular claims in that post about the effects of the COVID-19 jabs being administered in the country might initially strike even the people in the medical community as true, but, upon careful review, they are false.
I am not a medical expert, but if any of my readers have seen this highly unsettling post about COVID-19 vaccines, I suggest you seek an expert perspective from Manila Bulletin’s columnist, Dr. Edsel Salvana, who addressed the malicious claims in the viral post point by point. Here’s a link to his article published last April 24, titled “COVID-19 vaccine myths and facts” – COVID-19 vaccine myths and facts – Manila Bulletin (mb.com.ph)
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Like many out there, I am confronted by the pain of indecision — anxious of the uncertainty that getting the vaccine or not could shorten my life. What I do know is that twisting the truth won’t help any of us arrive at the right decision.
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