The side of the anti-HCQ-2

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

Last Friday, I summarized the lengthy article written by Dr. Edsel Maurice Salvana and published by Manila Bulletin (September 29, 2020). He is an expert in his field with several initials after his name, indicating his competencies in medicine. He is a UP professor whose piece strikes against the use of HCQ with snide remarks against his fellow doctors who used this drug in the treatment of Covid-19 patients.

Dr. Salvana is the Research Coordinator at the Section of Infectious Diseases of the Department of Medicine at the Philippine General Hospital. He also heads the subcommittee for HIV of the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. In short, he is a specialist in infectious diseases like Covid-19. Moreover, Salvana sits as an institutional representative on the Global Fund Country Coordinating Mechanism of the World Health Organization. As the name implies the Global Fund provides money to certain institutions and individuals. For the Philippines, the process to avail of the fund possibly passes through Salvana.

Bill Gates, the owner of Moderna that is doing research on a vaccine as a “cure” for COVID 19, is a hefty donor of WHO.

The doctor thus works mainly with the government (UP and PGH), and because of his specialties we can assume that Health Secretary Francisco Duque seeks his counsel; maybe Salvana is among the architects of the government’s response to the pandemic.

So we know where he is coming from in his tirade against fellow doctors who favor HCQ. It is understandable, nay expected, that with his standing in the country’s medical sector and connection with the top government health agencies, he would be the frontman to defend the DOH’s position in relation to the demand to allow doctors to use HCQ.

He knows where his bread is buttered and we should not begrudge that because we cannot expect him to be independent and write otherwise.

His piece I condensed last Friday is an elaboration of the DOH position. Nothing new about the “flaws” or “ineffectiveness” of HCQ he cited. He declared, ex-cathedra: the preponderance of evidence for hydroxychloroquine shows it does not work.

His pronouncement against the effectiveness of HCQ however runs smack against the personal experiences and studies of other independent doctors who can also claim competencies on Salvana’s specialties and even more.

Does Salvana in effect consider the other doctors here and elsewhere to be dimwits as to make public claims that are not true? Is Salvana saying the other doctors are liars for declaring from their personal experiences that HCQ works? I think he should give credit to others who proved that HCQ works even if it did not work in his case. Maybe he was doing it differently.

Of course, Salvana need not believe, so what are his prescriptions, his alternatives to the rising number of panicky patients and families? He wrote that HCQ does not work, so what can he give, what can DOH do, to alleviate the fears and misery of thousands of patients and their families?

I do not question Salvana’s credentials but at this time of grave health crisis, should he not be more open to the findings and experiences of other doctors who are in the field? They work and expose themselves daily to the infected patients so that it is unfair and unjust to belittle and brush aside what they have used and found effective.

Salvana can remain on his perch and be the pretty boy of Health Secretary Duque or the WHO with its multi-billion dollar Global Fund. That is not our concern for as the Bible recognizes, a worker is worthy of his hire.

However, by dogmatically declaring that HCQ does not work and helping influence policymakers and other doctors that the drug does not work, is Salvana not being unjust? With hundreds dying and thousands agonizing and hoping that something can be done, can his obstruction be forgivable? Don’t people deserve a chance?

His camp’s ban of alternative means deprive the suffering people of a chance, even a slim hope that they can avoid death. The government’s threat to investigate those who are asking to prescribe HCQ sends has a chilling effect on doctors. Are the authorities not pushing people to the edge of despair?

Let’s continue tomorrow.