By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

FINALLY, the surge in cases in Dagupan City gets the attention of Mayor Brian Lim.

What I find ironic, if not hypocritical, is his analysis and realization of the causes of the surge in human transmission of COVID-19 virus today as if nobody in the city was aware of it.  Where was he the whole time?

Of course, the main cause of the spread of the Covid virus is the increasing tendency of the populace to disregard the health and distancing protocols. Whether at the workplace or at home.

This is precisely where his administration has been failing miserably. Mr. Lim didn’t think that strict enforcement of the wearing of masks (and shields) would make a difference so there was no strict enforcement from day one! He even thought that opening up the Tondaligan Beach during the holidays would do no harm.

I even wonder if he has dared to gather empirical data about how the contact-tracing has been pursued based on cases logged in the city’s hospitals. He didn’t appear fazed by conditions of the hospitalized patients’ cases, who recovered and died.

Is he even aware that relatives of patients that died of other causes than Covid are forced to agree to propositions that they need not pay the hospital bills if they agree to sign a document that certifies that the cause of death was Covid, a claim that can be used by hospitals and doctors to collect fees reserved for Covid cases?

Sometimes, relatives of patients that died of Covid are routinely submitted by hospitals to PhilHealth as death caused by Covid, going as far as citing use of Remdesivir to lend credibility to the claim but which was not administered at all. (I was shown documents of one complaint filed vs. one hospital in the city).

Now comes the option open to mayors. They are free to declare total lockdown or granular or zonal lockdown. Curiously, Mr. Lim who’s showing determination to keep the infection level down never mentioned to have considered at least a granular or zonal lockdown in areas or neighborhood where high number of cases are located.

By suddenly expressing sudden fear of breakaway Covid infection in the city, I can surmise that he wants a declaration of a total lockdown by IATF to justify an allocation of millions from the national government the city during a total lockdown, like he has seen in NCR+.

Or could it be that he refuses even to consider a granular lockdown because by declaring any lockdown, the city government has to support affected families. Hmmm… Mr. Lim is not willing to spare funds for them.

Other towns can, but not Dagupan City? Where is the concern for the surge in cases??

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FIGHTING FOR IVERMECTIN. The campaign to have the FDA and IATF to lift restrictions on the use of Ivermectin as treatment for COVID-19 is far from over. 

This can be gleaned from the recent activation of The Concerned Doctors and Citizens of the Philippines (CDC Ph), prime movers for the use of Ivermectin. The list of officers is easily the giveaway: Homer Lim, M.D., president; Mari Kaimo, vice-president; and Lovely Rivero, corporate secretary- all staunch advocates for Ivermectin. 

From CDC Ph’s press release that The PUNCH received, it’s initial initiative was to appeal to President Duterte “to allow a ‘second opinion’ from other doctors who are successful in treating thousands of patients… to present how they were able to treat and save a significant number of patients.” 

Obviously, the “second opinion” a common medical phrase, is about the use of Ivermectin which the government refused to delist as a regulated treatment for COVID-19 virus. The group apparently already documented success stories in the treatment of patients with Ivermectin.  

CDC Ph claims it is a “non-partisan organization composed of professionals and experts from the medical, health, business, financial, and research industries proposing science-driven, evidence-based solutions to the biggest challenges facing the nation during the COVID-19 outbreak. They aim to help the government safely lift the lockdown to save more lives and restore more livelihoods.”  

I wonder if there are local doctors, hospital owners that believe in the use of  Ivermectin that already joined this group because it’s not farfetched that Ivermectin was served to their family members and close family friends.  

And if so, what’s their “second opinion’?

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CDC Ph, like the Octa Research, deserves to be listened to.

It is not going against any law but is simply making recommendations for government to consider, i.e., to address “public’s concern about pandemic treatment protocols such as CT (cycle threshold) settings of our RT-PCR machine, yielding high false positives.”

It also asks that government allows other medical professionals to challenge IATF’s data that focuses on cases “and not the number of hospitalized which determines whether healthcare is overwhelmed or not.”

On CDC Ph’s recommendation that government allows citizens to have a choice regarding vaccination, that is problematic. First of all, vaccination is offered as first layer of protection and government has responsibility to ensure citizens not only to have access to the vaccine, but must have it at any time.

Also, if vaccination is optional, there is no way government can determine the amount of supply the country should have without risking excess or shortage at any given time. Government cannot also allow citizens to choose their preferred brand of vaccine since the government is not privileged like the western nations that have first crack.

What is definitely not debatable is the group’s main objective: “to include a cheap, effective alternative to treating COVID-19 and be implemented down to the barangay level, available to all Filipinos.”

Personally, I favor the deregulation of use of Ivermectin to treat anything! Why should it be different from using aspirin or paracetamol or herbal medicines for any medical issue with doctor’s advice?

Because of this FDA regulation- limiting ivermectin’s use to animals by veterinarians- it is doing more harm than good to the citizenry. Many have started to use it without doctors’ authorization because that would unduly risk their licenses.

Is there a pressure from big pharmas to stop anything that will affect sale of their products, particularly acceptance of their vaccines? Our doctors can whisper to us what they know.

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REAL HELP FOR MEDICAL FRONTLINERS.  In our editorial this week, we cited the urgency for government and private hospitals to look into the plight of health workers at the frontlines – those caring directly for Covid patients in hospitals and isolation facilities.   

 Both the provincial government and the Dagupan City government have announced plans to prepare and expand facilities to meet demands of a possible sudden increase in the utilization of beds dedicated to Covid cases. But, nothing is said about resources being prepared and allocated to protect and care for the medical frontliners that will be with the patients 24/7 with their virus infections.

 There is an urgency to look into our medical frontliners plight amid reports of failure of the national government to pay promised benefits.

 Our private sector must step up to help our medical frontlines who risk their lives 24/7.  Words of endearment for their heroic acts are hollow if we don’t stand by them where they need us.

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