More people die of dengue than COVID-19?

More than a week ago I’ve repeatedly asked the Department of Health (DOH) in Region VII headed by Regional Director Dr. Jaime Bernadas or Dr. Daisy Villa of Cebu City Health Office what really is the fatality or death rate in Cebu City, but two weeks later there was nothing but deafening silence. Then out of the blue CDN Digital released a statement from Dr. Bernadas who said that other illnesses such as dengue and tuberculosis even infected and killed more people than COVID-19. In short Dr. Bernadas was saying that COVID-19 isn’t something we should be afraid of.

Just on dengue fever alone, the DOH in Central Visayas collated this information that in Cebu City there were 1,142 cases with a total of six deaths from Jan. 1 to May 9, 2020. Mandaue City had 359 cases and one death, while Talisay City had 156 cases and zero death. Lapu-Lapu City had 689 cases with zero death. Since we went on ECQ Cebu City had 11 deaths due to COVID-19 and on dengue fever alone there were already six deaths, and it is not even dengue fever season yet. Nope, they did not issue any fatality rates for people having tuberculosis. If you add this figures up you will see that there are far more fatalities from dengue and tuberculosis.

Mind you when it was dengue fever season there were more deaths that I remember than from COVID-19. The major difference is we never went on lockdown during Dengue season. So we’d like to know why the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) considered Cebu City as the epicenter of COVID-19 in the Philippines? Is it because we have been very honest in reporting the results of our mass testing of cases? Also is it because we are considered the highest in ASEAN? Perhaps the IATF should consider that this is not a contest among ASEAN members as to who gets the highest number of cases, but rather who has the lowest number of deaths because Cebu City is the lowest in the Philippines and also in ASEAN.

Today Cebu City and Mandaue City have remained under ECQ because of the high number of cases. But now that the DOH has finally issued the fatality rate for dengue and tuberculosis deaths, it is high time for the IATF to review how they fix our status. Perhaps it is incumbent for the IATF to only look at one country that has been very successful in solving their virus crisis. I’m referring to what Taiwan has done for its country and its people, where they did not even go into lockdown mode. I just hope that the people behind the IATF do not follow the World Health Organization (WHO) which has been acting like the puppet of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The latest report I got from the US media is that Pres. Trump has warned WHO that they must do a massive reform and investigate where the COVID-19 originated, otherwise in a month’s time, they would freeze the funding of WHO permanently. In a book written by Matthew Kroenig, author of a new book entitled “The Return of Great Power Rivalry,” he said, “There’s a global recognition that China is responsible for this crisis, wasn’t transparent, and that not getting to the bottom of this could lead to future pandemics.” At this point, I dare say that not only the WHO needs to be investigated by the entire United Nations (UN) itself because it seems that the Red Chinese has literally corrupted this once noble organization.

For instance we ought to find out how China was able to become the chair of the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) when the whole world knows it doesn’t respect the human rights of people. Just look what it has been doing to the people of Hong Kong. This alone tells us that an investigation is in order against the UN.

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At this point in time we should warn our Senators to be more careful when issuing their own pronouncements. The STAR report that Sen. Cynthia Villar said “The middle class should not be receiving assistance from the government’s social amelioration program (SAP) amid the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming that 18 million target beneficiaries of the emergency subsidy represent 82 percent of the estimated 22 million Filipino families in the Philippines. This statement was made during a hybrid hearing of the Senate committee of the whole where she said that those people have work even during the lockdown.

Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said that the 22 million families being cited by Villar is from a 2015 data, which has to be updated to meet the actual needs in the present. Sen. Villar said only 59 percent of Filipino families are poor as she underscored that the poverty incidence in the country has dropped in recent years. Just in the last three months, I would like to believe that many Filipinos who say that they belong to the middle class sector ought to reconsider their way of thinking.

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