Keep ‘home alone’ policy

The Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging and Infectious Disease (IATF-MEID) did the right thing to hold in abeyance the inane proposal to ban home quarantine for mild and asymptomatic cases of the 2019 coronavirus diseases, or COVID-19 infection. The IATF decided to undertake a thorough review of the recommendation of the National Task Force (NTF) on COVID-19 and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to disallow home quarantine.

For clarity, the IATF is the policy-making body that recommends to President Rodrigo Duterte before he decides on the final course of actions and measures to stop the spread of the COVID-19 contagion in the Philippines. It is co-chaired by Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Dr. Francisco Duque III and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles. On the other hand, the NTF is the implementing body of the IATF. It is co-chaired by Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and DILG Secretary Eduardo Año.

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Carlito Galvez, as the NTF response chief implementer, cited officials of Valenzuela and Bulacan local government units (LGUs) adopted “no home quarantine” policy. But these LGUs could afford to provide for quarantine facilities which they claimed helped reduce COVID-19 cases in their areas.

The DOH, however, rightly is worried of the consequences of the proposed ban because this requires additional government resources – that are not endless – and re-deployment of health care workers who are already thinly spread.

Except for Duque and Nograles, Lorenzana, Año, and Galvez are all retired military generals. This is why, administration critics keep carping about the Duterte administration’s anti-COVID measures have mostly been “militarized” and border on authoritarianism.

In his weekly nightly televised address to the people last Sept. 7, President Duterte clearly enunciated at the IATF meeting his belief that fighting the COVID-19 pandemic should be done in the most practical and realistic basis rather than by extreme measures like lockdowns that we had in the past.

Our country’s economy and the people’s livelihood paid a high price for the prolonged lockdowns. Thus, it created more problems for the government that it must be able to address also and come up soon with remedial measures.

Because in the end, it is us Filipinos who will have to take the bitter pills again to overcome and recover from the COVID impact to our lives.

At this stage, the President noted with optimism that the global race to develop anti-COVID vaccine is gaining much grounds. Hence, the IATF must think of other measures that are more doable rather than create more problems for the government that is already tied down by dwindling resources.

Since he was Mayor of Davao City, the 75-year-old President Duterte shared his personal history in having handled local public health crisis. Though not of the same magnitude as the COVID-19 pandemic that we are currently faced with, the President tried to impress upon his Cabinet IATF officials that we Filipinos possess the seeming inherent strength and resilience to fight off contagion.

“Maybe because of the climate or constitution body itself, one’s constitution body. We have, Filipinos, we have more antibodies in their (system),” the President pointed out.

“Sabagay ‘yung – huwag ho kayong mainsulto kasi totoo naman – pero wala akong nakitang taga-squatter na tinamaan. Maski sa Davao, magtanong ako ng mga bata, wala. Sabi nila, ‘Ano ‘yan?’(COVID-19),” he cited.

This reminded me of the same words of wisdom from my late mother while I was still nurturing my twin sons during their growing up years. She used to nag me as being too paranoid to keep my kids spic and span. She would tell me to allow them to get dirtied or soiled playing outside our house.

“Look at the children at squatters’ areas. They let their kids out half-dressed, some even naked and play in the mud and rain. But they don’t even get sick because they’re exposed already to those germs,” she would repeatedly pound on. It was not on pejorative sense but in pragmatic statement of facts.

More or less, this is the same sense of President Duterte on his observation about the natural antibodies of people, especially the marginalized sector of our society who live in cramped one-room house or shanties.

“So nary – nary a care about COVID. Ito ‘yung lumaki sa ano eh.So all these years from infancy to how old they are now, hinigop nilang lahat ng ano kagaw kaya nagkaroon na sila ng panglaban. Maliit pa, ‘pag lumusot kasi ‘yan sila noong maliit pa nagkasakit five, six, seven, eight, ‘pag lumusot ‘yan ‘pag malaki na ‘yan, matatag ‘yan. Hindi na tinatablan,” the President further explained.

“But do not be too complacent about it just because you think that you have the antibodies. You might really have the advantage but the law of averages always takes a toll – its toll. Malay mo matamaan ka talaga,” the President warned.

The presidential sentiments on the matter have apparently sunk already into the minds of the IATF. They decided to rein in the NTF from their high horses like generals ready to swoop down upon their enemies.

In justifying their proposed ban on home quarantine, NTF and the DILG claimed having discovered in their going around the country that many households doing it were not compliant to the protocols. Thus, they blamed the home quarantine contributed to the spread of COVID-19 cases in these communities.

Under existing quarantine protocols, an individual could undergo home isolation provided that he or she has a separate room with comfort room for use solely by the same patient, and that there are no vulnerable persons in the household such as senior citizens and those with pre-existing conditions.

Methinks, it would be more prudent for the national government to use scarce resources to help those direly needing assistance than spending for even those who can afford to undergo home quarantine. If ain’t broke don’t fix it. Keep “home alone” policy.