WE DO NOT have any idea how deep is the ambition of some critics of the administration, especially the politicians aspiring to be back in the corridors of power, to rid the country as fast as possible of the present government leadership.
Yes, because somehow they have explored even the wildest imagination to craft all kinds of issues that could stoke the people’s hatred to those running the government, especially the President. Think of this.
Some of the vicious critics are saying that the administration is harboring a game plan in arriving at the much desired “herd immunity” in an out-of-this-world manner! According to these critics that include politicians in the opposition, some media personalities who are possibly under the payroll of these politicians or some pharmaceutical companies wanting to sell their products in the Philippines, the game plan of the administration is to allow as many people as possible, if not all, to get infected of the dreaded CoronaVirus. In the process, the critics allege, the desired herd immunity will be attained even if the mass vaccination is not yet completed.
Why? According to the critics’ allegation, the government will then be able to achieve the herd immunity because those infected by the virus will now be able to produce by themselves the antibodies that will make them immune to the disease.
Wow! That indeed is one of the wildest imaginations of the critics who are salivating of the power. But sorry, a medical doctor, Dr. Edsel Salvana, an expert in infectious diseases and a member of the Department of Health’s technical team assisting in the fight against the deadly virus, the claim is indeed a product of the critics’ wildest imagination. She said that it is not true, and that no government in the whole world has adopted such a move as a policy in acquiring herd immunity.
She also stomps on the suggestion that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorize the medical practitioners to prescribe a certain brand of animal drug to be used in treating humans infected with CoViD 19. The doctors say, the drug regulator (FDA) should first acquire enough clinical basis to approve the use of such drugs for humans even if there are supposed testimonies given by this and that doctors saying that they have factual knowledge of the said drug’s efficacy.
Seeingly, Dr. Salvana was saying that her technical team cannot be bullied around even by politicians and self-proclaimed powerful media personalities into recommending to the FDA the approval of the animal drug for human use without them first getting the opportunity to weigh evidences that will support the said drug’s benefits than its risk to humans.
And then come this self-proclaimed powerful media personality who claims in his television and Facebook broadcast that certain executives in the Department of Health (DOH) and the FDA are making money in approving or delaying or not acting on application for authorizations in the use of certain drugs for the Filipino people.
The guy is pushing strongly the granting of authority to the makers of the controversial drug to market it in the Philippines claiming that it is very inexpensive compared to the one which is now being used against CoViD 19.
And the media personality is emphatic in saying that money is involved in all actions of the DOH and the FDA. He even said that he himself will file the necessary charges against the DOH and FDA executives if they will not resign from their post.
The guy really may be thinking that everybody in the country believes he is an ex-cathedra. That he is without sin. That all he claims about the officials of the two government agencies are gospel truth simply because he has his name.
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In Davao City no less than Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio announced the other day that private hospitals here will no longer admit CoViD 19 patients. No, not because they do not want to. But it is because there is now a steep decline in the number of CoViD 19 infections in the city that these can already be attended to solely by the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC). After all, SPMC has been designated by the government as the referral hospital for people infirmed with the deadly virus.
But actually, the move is some kind of a strategic fallback of the private hospitals in the city. Yes, because the hospitals concerned will use their relieved CoViD time in making preparation and adjustments to the possibility of a surge of infections in the days to come.
Well, it’s like making hay while the sun is shining. Yes, now that Davao City is experiencing a comfortable respite in the cases of new infection, it bodes well if this leeway is taken advantage of for whatever required preparations by the private hospitals. As we said in our yesterday’s column, “Better prepared than sorry.”
