Cherry picking?

By Art Jimenez

 

Unfortunate and saddening it is to learn how fast COVID-19 could infect not only one but six persons, all doctors, and in a 265-bed tertiary level training general hospital at that.

The scene was silently chaotic last Sunday (June 28) evening when the DOH locked down St. Paul’s Hospital of Iloilo (SPHI). No one could leave the premises; all were locked in: medical personnel, staff, the stranded (i.e., about-to-go-home recovered patients and their visitors). Some, however, managed to get out by climbing over the back wall, ala East Berlin Wall, to the esplanade, I was told.

Locked out were the incoming hospital graveyard shift, new patients, visitors, and those who just bought to-go food at nearby eateries and stores.

The lockdown will enable the hospital to do the 3 Ts, test, treat, track.

I am certain the lockdown will soon be lifted even as the sisters and their number crunchers will be busy counting the cost.

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Sensitive to criticisms but rich in self-praise, the DOH accused the WHO of “cherry-picking” data in favor of Singapore when the health org said the new cases of COVID-19 (C-19) infection rate here was more than three times (i.e., 3.1) that of Singapore on the basis of infections per million population. DOH added we should instead be matched against countries whose population is just about the same as our 109.6 million (with 36,438 C-19 cases, as of June 29, 2020).

We will do just that: compare our rate of C-19 infection with three other countries in the Western Pacific Region of the WHO, namely China, Japan, and South Korea. With 1.44 billion in population and 85,204 C-19 cases, China’s infection rate viz the Philippines is but a tiny dot of 0.06 C-19 cases per million (CPM) Chinese.

The same is also true for Japan with a 126.5 million population compared to our 109.6 million. Japan has a lower number of cases: 18,476 C-19 cases for 146 cases per million (CPM) Japanese compared to our 36,438 cases or 332 CPM Filipinos.

South Korea’s rate of infections is still lower than ours even if you double its June 2020 population of 51.3 million and its 12,757 C-19 cases.

Aside from the above stats that debunk DOH’s claim, it cannot really charge WHO with cherry-picking. See, WHO whose Western Pacific Regional Office is along Taft Avenue and U.N. Avenue in Manila, was merely comparing infection cases in the said region of 22 countries, of which China, Philippines, and Singapore stand out.  Btw, most international agencies, like The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and Asian Development Bank rightly group the Philippines and Singapore in the Southeast Asian Region.

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Instead of reacting to observations from local, national, or international agencies (like the WHO), the DOH should focus its attention and efforts to testing, testing, testing for C-19 positive cases from a wider spectrum of “front-liners” from the partially open business establishments like restaurants and grocery stores, street cleaners, garbage collectors, teachers, and those who have to meet people as part of their daily routine. They could be C-19 virus carriers and possible spreaders that would only negate all the LGU and NG (National Government) efforts and resources efforts to contain and minimize infections. They should continue and widen their testing reach to more personnel of the PNP, AFP, and PCG.

As to testing, the efforts of LGUs and the Philippine Red Cross are most commendable. They solicit private contributions, donations, whatever to build test labs in well-studied strategic areas.

The DOH should share part of their “million” test kits with the LGUs and PRC. Despite their 65 testing labs and projections of “expanded testing,” by this or that date, their actual testing capacity leaves much to be desired.

And by the way, what’s the DOH score on tracing? It has more than 30,000 trackers hired at, I think, P30,000 a month plus allowances. How many have they successfully tracked? The stats should appear on the DOH Daily Bulletin of Covid-19 cases.

That’s not cherry-picking, mind you. That’s picking on our admittedly hardworking DOH!