When science and politics clash

Muzzles like those attached to dogs to stop them from barking and biting and not N95 masks are needed right now if only to stop so many people talking like doctors or medical experts spreading false, if not outright lies, about the 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease, or nCoV ARD.

Well, it’s just wisecracks from an infectious disease specialist who attended the Senate public hearing last Tuesday on the rising cases of 2019-n-CoV infection, mainly transmitted by Chinese tourists who originated from Wuhan, China – the ground zero of this deadly virus.

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Edsel Maurice Salvana, director of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of the Philippines (UP)-National Institute of Health (NIH), jokingly made these digs amid the continuing shortage of surgery N95 masks and other surgical masks that became a hot product following the public panic over the 2019-NCoV.

Adlibbing from his prepared statement at the Senate public hearing of his committee on health, Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go even suggested to “quarantine” those spreading mis-information about the 2019-nCoV.

Both were merely echoing frustrations at the way certain government personalities who are supposed to be responsible officials unduly stirring such general panic when it demands calm and sobriety in dealing with a potential public health crisis. We precisely sought to engage perspectives from the medical experts and specialists during our weekly Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday to help enlighten the people from apolitical points of view on this public health issue.

We invited Salvana as one of our featured doctors to engage us in a sober and logical conversation in our weekly breakfast news forum at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay at Café Adriatico in Remedios Circle, Malate. He was joined by fellow specialists, doctors Beaver Tamesis and Diana Edralin, president and medical adviser, respectively of the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP).

Salvana expressed his disappointment and frustration on why the “frontline” government personnel were being pilloried by policies and activities beyond the pale of science and medicine. This is especially so in the case of the DOH personnel led by Duque, who he rued, has been risking their own lives in trying to contain the spread of 2019-nCoV. The UP-NIH is independent of the DOH.

Previously mysterious, medical laboratory tests on viral outbreak that started in December last year, led experts to conclude the disease belongs to a new strain of corona virus now called as 2019-nCoV ARD. Spread by droplets from cough and sneeze, the 2019-nCoV reached the Philippines from the hordes of tourists from Wuhan and other parts of China who flew here to celebrate their Chinese Lunar Year holiday.

Filipinos who are prone and gullible to social media-driven rumors and unverified reports triggered panic buying, if not hoarding of N95 and other surgical masks. Called as personal protective equipment mostly used by doctors and nurses, Salvana complained, their supply of N95 masks became scarce.

As of last Wednesday, the Department of Health (DOH) disclosed there were already 133 persons under investigation (PUIs) suspected to be infected with 2019-nCoV in our country. Of this total, 62 of them were Filipinos who might have contracted it from human-to-human contamination from carriers of 2019-nCoV from Wuhan.

Seated at the back of DOH Secretary Dr. Francisco Duque during the Senate hearing, Salvana could only cringe at how the discussions were reduced to simplistic appreciation of much more complicated medical and science-based matters and issues. For example, he cited, the debate on supposed belated travel ban imposed by the Philippine government which only came after there had been two Chinese tourists who were tested positive for 2019-nCoV infection as immediate cause of death. Before they died, the two tourists have travelled to Cebu and Dumaguete.

While certain people in the Philippines – mostly politicians – insist on travel ban, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Tuesday that the outbreak of the 2019-nCoV does not yet constitute a “pandemic” level despite having spread so far to two dozen other countries, including the Philippines. Sylvie Briand, head of the WHO’s Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness division, announced at their international head office in Switzerland: “Currently, we are not in a pandemic” the category of 2019-nCoV.

As of this writing yesterday, the 2019-nCoV cases still has not reached “pandemic” category of the Geneva-based WHO even as its latest official count as reported to them has reached 563 fatalities directly caused by this deadly virus out of 28,200 infected people. Just a week ago, we were in Geneva on the familiarization tour of the research and development facility of the Philip Morris International (PMI).

During the same Senate hearing, country representative to the Philippines of the WHO Western Pacific Office Rabindra Abeyasinghe explained this is the reason why the WHO is not recommending any travel restrictions on the 2019-nCoV because this is a “sovereign” decision by the governments. Current level of cases recorded so far by the WHO is still considered at that time as “global public health of emergency concern” category.

On government travel ban, Salvana likened this to the use on masks on panic mode. But if these measures can assuage their fear of infection, Salvana conceded, it would help ease and stave off escalation of panic mode. He cited psychology, behavioral and social sciences differ from political science on approaches and solutions.

But at times, I must add, these fields of science can complement each other on overlapping concerns.

When science and politics clash, it would endanger lives and put the country at risk as a whole if both will not meet on common grounds and agree to compromise solutions to existing national health and social welfare problems at hand.