DOH: OCTA not part of FASSSTER

We would like to request a correction on Ms. Marichu Villanueva’s column “FASSSTER; ‘Vax to the max.’ ”

In the said article, Ms. Villanueva wrote:

Duque described the composition of FASSSTER as individuals who are all specialists in their respective fields in science, academe, mathematics, statistics, health, epidemiology, and medicine. The groups include the Octa Research headed by professors Ranjit Rye and Guido David of the University of the Philippines (UP).

The paragraph reads as if OCTA Research Group is part of the FASSSTER Group. While we value the opinion of the writer and the contributions of OCTA Research Group, we would like to clarify, however, that OCTA is a separate entity from FASSSTER.

The OCTA Research Group is not part of the DOH Experts. We know that The Philippine Star values accuracy in reporting, in the same way that the Department of Health wants to deliver correct information to the Filipino people. We hope that this error will be corrected immediately.

We will keep our communication lines open for concerns. Thank you very much. – Maria Rosario Singh-Vergeire, MD, MPH, CESO II, OIC-Undersecretary of Health, Public Health Services Team, DOH spokesperson