Rizal Philippines
April 1, 2020
Happy April Fools Day
Situation:/Problem
1. A famed Pediatric Transplant Surgeon died of CoVid 19 died, and his son wished that the govt had "a more coherent plan" vs the epidemic. Dont we have a coherent plan?
As I tried to review the literature available, there seems to be no pandemic plan, or one that tells how to handle a lockdown. We are in a new territory.
There are movies that depicts pandemic situation in 2011, and pandemic protocol at the the time of Pres George Bush. We could have just copied them.
There is RA 11332 but reviewing it only tells the reporting of the notifiable diseases, and does not tell, of a national comprehensive plan how to deal with a pandemic, like resources and methodology. Here we are talking of shortages of PPE and ventilators which should have been covered in a comprehensive pandemic plan...
2. Despite the strict lockdown, the number of cases of doubled to 2,000 and others were saying the lockdown was a failure. (No it is not. The number of deaths despite the size of population is still in the low double digits and number of cases low 4 numbers)
3. Maybe because of machismo attitude vs the disease: duduran or ihiian, sasampalin the leadership of the Philippines took the situation lightly, and the professionals reporting to him, busy as they are had plenty of oversights, and left much of the work to the barangay, who are busy all ready, and who are ill capacitated to handle a complex situation like a pandemic.
In a coherent plan, in a lockdown, detailed procedures should have been made detailed, resources provided and adequate training made.
1. Communication of the orders, (this is an important part of the protocol
2. Training of the frontliners, policemen, soldiers and barangay officials.
3. Transport of goods and medicine (neglected) and food (divergent policies of LGUs are all
ready endangering food supplies in the centers of population
4. Food of the residents. In a lockdown situation, as in Wuhan, the govt provides the food of all
citizens 3x a day, because everybody stays at home
5. Stockpiles of medical supplies: PPE medicines, vaccines. Some claim that the death of many health professionals are caused by lack of PPE. We are canvassaing for ventilators which are in short supply. The govt procurement procedures, as I reviewed with a supplier appear very complex
6. Because of various lockdown policies: like limited market hours etc the goal of the lockdown, to
limit transmission became much worse. The military punishment by PNP and AFP on civilian popu-
lation is causing friction between the govt and the civilian population
4. Adopting only one strategy: strict lockdown with adverse social and economic costs
The European countries failed to implement lockdown, but SK and Japan are battling the disease
through mass testing, isolating the sick, quarantine facilities
Maybe we are evolving because we welcomed the Abbot POC testing, China test kits. We are setting
Covid 19 Centers, and quarantine facilities and yes, expanded the number of accredited laboratories.
Maybe we and or our senior officers should not be faulted because of China influence on our President. The Chinese hid many information from the Philippine health officers like the the extent of infection during the Lunar New Year, hence we allowed Wuhan residents to spread infection to the Philippines
5. Allowing the Wuhan migrants to land at the Philippines when the the infection was all ready at all time
high at Wuhan.
6. All ready many are questioning the competence and lack of leadership of senior manager at the Health Department which includes but not limited to conflict of interest, late response, being reactive rather than being proactive
1. Adamance to implement mass testing
2. Alleged COI
3. Lack of planning and preparation
7. Lack of unity of command, compliance and obedience (sakit ng Pinoy)
There is no need for this in Japan, SK or Japan (we are more like the Spaniards and Italians) who continued to party despite the epidemic
Examples:
1. Varied and conflicting orders and laws implementing lockdowns, thus slowing or impeding flow of
goods and food to the centers of population. Thus we have cases of rotting undelivered vegetables
Plenty of rice in the province but rising prices in cities because of lack of rice because of lockdowns
in the provinces
2. Transport of medical personnel, although solved later on
3. Problems in food distribution. All ready there are reported trouble due to delays in food distribution
Maybe the health officials are good at observing protocols but are not good at changing them. (Matitigas din ang ulo) That is why the health officials will keep repeating the same thing, until we/they find it not to be working. May be we are good at treating the patients but the lack of test kits, PPE and ventilators are hampering our effortts
Options:
1. Do nothing do as per seat of the pants or as we are doing now
2. Have a comprehensive lockdown procedures and
A Comprehensive Pandemic Master Plan since we are hit by so many epidemic: ASF, Swine Flu, Sars, Mercov, Ebola, Warburg.
Coverage
1. Reporting
1. Statistics
2. Analysis
3. Contact tracing
2. Declaration of a Pandemic
1. Communication
2. Implementation
3. Organization
4. Reporting
3. Preparation
Inputs Materials Equipment
1. PPE stockpile
2. Medicines stockpiles and research into vaccines and test kits
3. Ventilators
4. Quarantine centers
5. Quarters of health workers
Transportation
- Budget requirements (I understand P10B was removed from DOH budget
- Removal of red tape in procurement
4. Lockdown and quarantine:
1. Who will implement
2. Training the soldiers, PNP who will implement the order, Barangay
3. Communication: command and control
4. Food distribution budget, logistics - outsourced ba
5. Transportation outsourced ba? Para mas mabilis
6. Enforcement
7. Aid through barangay or through a more professional automated govt offices used in handling large amounts/number of checks. Or through banks? I smell large billion peso graft in the proposed system
to handle the distrribution of P200 B aid of P5 to P8 k aid to those adversely affected by the emergency.
N. B. I should not be doing this, just stay at home. But who knows I can be overcome by this virus, and would not have contributed to the improvement of this country. Sayang
