Second thoughts on the COVID ‘panic’

By Herbert Vego

 

THIS corner has consistently expressed doubts about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) statistics that the World Health Organization (WHO) has been feeding the media with. I have always cautioned against allowing panic to cloud our sensibility because, based on scientific studies, it could engender long-term effects like cardiovascular and gastrointestinal diseases.

In a sense, panic over COVID-19 qualifies as another form of “pandemic.”

On the other hand, on a smaller scale, social media tend to also lend credence to “conspiracy stories” calling the COVID-19 pandemic a “biological weapon” that China and the WHO have foisted to paralyze the world economy and eventually to subjugate the United States and other world powers.

It is public knowledge that WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom visited President Xi Jinping in Beijing in the last week of January 2020. Until then, WHO had allegedly heeded Xi’s request to delay releasing information on the disease’s outbreak in Wuhan City.

The world learned belatedly in January 2020 that the first Covid-19 case in Wuhan City occurred way back on November 17, 2019.

The social media also throbs with seemingly doubtful stories naming American billionaire Bill Gates a “conspirator” who stands to profit from the virus, having put up a $300 million fund to formulate a vaccine against the coronavirus, which – if successful — would further boost his image as the richest man in the world.

No less than President Rodrigo Duterte has pinned his hope on vaccines from “either China or Russia”.

Until then, we could only rely on preventive tools – physical distancing, face-masking/shielding and disinfecting hands with alcohol – to ward off droplets coming from another person’s saliva or phlegm.

Meanwhile, we get a daily dose of scary COVID “worldometer” from the WHO which, as of yesterday, recorded around 40 million cases worldwide, of which 1.1 million are dead.

The Philippines ranks “No. 20” as to the number of COVID cases. As of yesterday, our share was 354,338 cases, including 6,603, counting from Jan. 30, 2020.

It’s bad news. But in a country of 110 million Filipinos, why blow the number of COVID deaths out of proportion? According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), more or less 1,500 Filipinos die of various diseases and other causes daily – or 45,000 per month, or 540,000 per year.

I have always doubted the accuracy of the so-called rapid tests and real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests to detect coronavirus.

I recently cited the case of barangay captain Efren Gimeo of Jalandoni Estate who was hospital-quarantined for 14 days for turning out COVID-positive. He swore, however, that he had been suffering from off-and-on “allergic rhinitis”.

Does it follow that Efren’s test had revealed either “false positive” or “true positive” of allergic rhinitis?

Why did I say so?

Research for yourself. The RT-PCR test was invented by the late American biochemist Kerry B, Mullis in 1985 “to detect signatures on DNA and RNA.” He could be referring to all infectious diseases. Therefore he could not have specifically targeted COVID, since the disease was unknown in his time.

Naisahan tayo?  Na-onse tayo? Whatever, daw amo gid!

 

-oOo-

 

CONGRATS TO MORE PRESIDENT

“More power to you” has become a favorite greeting from one person to another.

We say it more appropriately to the president and chief executive officer of MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power), Roel Z. Castro, who has been cited by the University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB) as this year’s “Outstanding Alumnus for Corporate Governance” along with seven other awardees from different categories.

A news item quoted him as saying, “UPLB taught me the values of excellence and honor, of which I am privileged to impart in the city and province of Iloilo. I was honored to represent Iloilo when this award was bestowed on me. I may not be an Ilonggo by birth but I am lucky to be an Ilonggo-at-heart.”

Castro, a Metro Manilan, had actually finished BS Agricultural Business at UP in Los Baños, Laguna, but fate intervened to catapult him to management level of the power sector here in Iloilo in almost a decade already.

Why not? He had also earned a post-graduate Master in Management course at the Asian Institute of Management and attended the Advanced Management Program of the University of Asia and the Pacific, as well as the ISSE Business School at the University of Navarra in Spain.

Castro belies the false rumor that MORE Power as the new distribution utility in Iloilo City would not succeed because it is manned by “inexperienced” employees.

I remember seeing Mr. Castro for the first time in 2014 (if my memory serves me right) during the launching of the coal-fired power plant of Palm Concepcion Power Corp. (PCPC) in Barangay Nipa, Concepcion, Iloilo. The company had chosen him to be its president.

By then, he had already honed himself in the energy sector, having also served as special assistant to the president of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP); and president of Palm Thermal Consolidated Holdings Corp.

Having heard of the award conferred on Castro by UPLB, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas expressed his congratulatory message on Facebook: “I know that your achievement will inspire you to even better the services of MORE Power, staying true to its commitment of providing excellent customer service, reliable electric service delivery, and competitive power rates for the Ilonggo community.”

It has almost been eight months since MORE Power assumed its role as power franchisee. There is no longer doubt as to its “long experience.” It’s because 51 of its employees had worked for many years for the previous power distributor, Panay Electric Co. (PECO).

“Masaya na kami dito,” they chorused during a MORE assembly confirming their “regular” status.