Pandemic responses

It’s intriguing that pro-administration senators are the ones leading the calls for the resignation of Francisco Duque as secretary of health.

But it’s not surprising that Malacañang rejected the calls. The Palace has largely bowed to the Department of Health (DOH) on how to deal with this unprecedented crisis. Duque’s failure becomes the administration’s failure.

The Senate resolution, however, calls for resignation – something that Malacañang can’t stop Duque from doing, if the quitting is irrevocable.

While Duque has not resigned so far, he has not rejected it outright either. He has mainly thanked the senators for their observations and has said he is ready to explain to them the actions taken in dealing with the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic.

The Senate resolution is a strongly worded indictment of Duque’s performance, accusing him of “failure of leadership, negligence, lack of foresight, and inefficiency in performance.”

If Duque digs in and later faces the Senate – perhaps in an inquiry by video conference, since it’s doubtful that large gatherings will be allowed any time soon – he might point to the World Health Organization (WHO) as his guide in the calls he made related to COVID-19.

The WHO under Tedros Ghebreyesus has been under fire from those who accuse him of loving China so much at the expense of the rest of the planet in dealing with a killer disease.

Beijing had reprimanded Chinese ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, who blew the whistle in December 2019 about an emerging SARS-like pathogen in Wuhan. Li died of COVID on Feb. 7 at age 33.

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It was natural for the China-leaning Philippine government to go along with the initial WHO advisories, which took pains not to hurt Beijing’s feelings while overlooking the urgent need for preparedness – to ramp up capabilities for mass testing, quarantine, contact tracing and isolation of patients, and to mass-produce masks and personal protective equipment for frontliners.

Other places such as South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, which had learned their lessons from Beijing’s handling of SARS and bird flu, prepared ASAP for the gathering storm as soon as reports began leaking about an emerging coronavirus in Wuhan. We’ve seen the results: South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan have spared their citizens from extensive virus contagion, and (most enviably) at the same time shielded their economies from the devastating impact of extreme lockdowns and community quarantines.

Instead of citing to the world the examples of those three places – or at least even of South Korea and Hong Kong, since the WHO has bowed to Beijing in isolating Taiwan – Tedros marveled at the unprecedented lockdown of Wuhan and the entire Hubei province by the Communist Party of China.

With Beijing’s response as the WHO model, this is where we all are now, folks.

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Duque can cite the presumption of regularity in hewing to the advisories of the WHO. Even if he had considered alternatives to the Wuhan lockdown, such as what South Korea and Hong Kong were doing to protect both public health and economic health, the Philippines at that point lacked the resources for preparedness.

Still, between the first COVID case reported in the Philippines until the declaration of a pandemic, we had nearly two months to improve COVID testing, contact tracing and isolation capabilities.

Health professionals point to at least one “lost month” in ramping up Philippine preparedness. They say that during that time, we could have readied more testing kits, set up quarantine and isolation facilities outside hospitals, mass-produced masks and prepared other personal protective equipment for frontliners.

Duque points out that the Philippines has no experience in dealing with this kind of public health emergency. 

South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong were hard-hit by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which originated from China’s Guangdong province, and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. The Philippines, on the other hand, was barely touched by SARS and MERS, and permutations of bird flu. Much earlier than these, the Philippines also escaped the brunt of the AIDS outbreak.

Such developments have bred speculation that our polluted environment combined with the tropical heat are not conducive to viruses, or else because of the pollution, we develop strong antibodies against killer germs. Until COVID-19 came along.

At the start of this pandemic, there was complacency and possibly the belief that the Philippines would again be spared from the worst of this novel coronavirus.

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In assessing our country’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, senators will be looking at these relevant dates:

Jan. 20: The Philippines reports its first COVID case, a 38-year-old female tourist from China’s Wuhan City

Jan. 23: China locks down Wuhan, to be followed later by the entire Hubei province; the WHO emergency committee decides against declaring COVID a public health emergency of international concern or PHEIC

Jan. 27: The cargo ship Ligulao from  Lianyungang, in China’s Jiangsu port, docks in Manila, but the 20 crew members are not allowed to disembark

Jan. 28: The World Dream cruise ship from Hong Kong docks in Manila; the 778 passengers are allowed to disembark

Jan. 29: Duque says there is no need for a travel ban on arrivals from China

Jan. 31: The WHO declares COVID a PHEIC

Feb. 1: The Philippines records its first COVID death – a Chinese man visiting from Wuhan

Feb 2: The Philippines imposes a travel ban on China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan

Feb. 3: Tedros Ghebreyesus says there is no need for the world to take measures that “unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade” such as worldwide travel restrictions

Feb. 14: The Philippines lifts the travel ban on Taiwan

Feb. 18: The travel ban is eased on Hong Kong and Macau

March 7: The Philippines reports its first case of local transmission

March 11: Patient No. 35, a 67-year-old Filipina with no history of foreign travel, becomes the first local COVID fatality. The WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic, with Tedros commenting: “We are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction.”

Later, he called the pandemic “the defining global health crisis of our time.”

March 12: Metro Manila is placed under community quarantine

March 15: The quarantine is enhanced or expanded to the entire Luzon

April 7: The quarantine is extended by two weeks, until April 30

April 20: More of the same?