Kudos to Health Secretary Duque
EVERY country in the world is making all efforts to contain and prevent the spread of the dreaded novel coronavirus (nCoV), and the Philippines is no exception.
Leading our gallant efforts is the Department of Health, led by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, my former chairman at the PhilHealth when I was an ex-officio member of its Board of Directors.
Duque is undoubtedly one of the hardest working members of President Duterte’s Cabinet. Dedication to work and deep abiding concern for his constituents have been the secretary’s trademark in all the senior government posts entrusted to him by three presidents of our republic.
His staying power and the complete trust given to him by our presidents speak volumes of his competence and worth, in public service. He’s truly a worthy son and namesake of a worthy father, the late and revered former secretary of health department and former governor of Pangasinan, Dr. Francisco T. Duque Jr.
The diligent and effective surveillance and monitoring of suspected nCoV cases, particularly tourists coming from Wuhan City and Hubei
province, the epicenters of the disease, have been paying off. They should also be commended for issuing timely health advisories to help guide the public, instead of getting misguided false information shared by trollers on social media.
The safety and preventive measures put in place by our authorities have given us less sleepless nights. With the coordination and support of the other government agencies, like the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Transportation, the Philippines is better prepared to confront nCoV. But we should not stop there. We need to implement more drastic actions similar to what other countries have been doing. For instance, deporting tourists who succeed in gaining entry through our ports should be implemented.
Likewise, denying entry of tourists from China and other countries with high incidence of the epidemic on Philippine-bound cruise ships should be strictly enforced.
We should stop the practice of issuing visas upon arrival to Chinese residents. By now, Filipinos in Wuhan should be repatriated, forcibly if warranted, to keep them safe. As of this writing, the virus has already claimed the lives of over 400 people, including the first reported nCoVrelated death in the Philippines on February 1. We appreciate Duterte’s move to ban all travels from mainland China and the regions of Macau and Hong Kong to further contain the spread of nCoV. As they say, “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.”
The current nCoV hysteria reminds us of the Black Death, which was one of the most horrible pandemics in the history of mankind. This plague claimed the lives of 100 million people, more or less, in the continents of Europe and Asia during the 14th century. When left untreated, up to 90 percent of those afflicted died within five days after catching the disease. The Black Death was caused by a bacteria, which was spread by fleas after picking up the germs from infected animals, like rats and mice. Then the disease was spread by fleas biting people, causing fever, chills, prostration and buboes.
Infected persons can also pass the bacteria to other people. The bubonic plague had caused more deaths than the total casualties of all great wars. It killed more than 50 million people in Europe alone, wiping out more than 60 percent of the population
in Europe at that time. This number, however, was disputed by some scholars. The devastation indisputably was so great that there were fewer farmhands to till and fewer industrial workers to man the factories in Europe. Historians averred that this was one factor that led to the Industrial Revolution centuries later.
In the case of nCoV, the bats are considered the main culprits instead of rodents, but coronavirus is as deadly as the plague. Note that the bats also caused the severe acute respiratory syndrome, which accounted for hundreds of deaths in 2003. Let’s pray that an antidote or cure for the nCoV will be discovered in time before this disease can reach pandemic proportions—that will be the scourge of mankind in the coming years. With a volcanic eruption, a series of earthquakes and other disasters, natural and man-made, crippling us, and now this bat-caused pandemic, I wish we can just sigh with relief and exclaim: “Bahala na si Batman.”
Last February 4 was the 118th birthday anniversary of Charles Lindbergh who made history by making the first successful transatlantic solo flight from New York to Paris in 1927. His incredible feat made him a household hero around the world, and virtually opened up the skies to commercial aviation. Many years later, he boarded a New York to London Boeing 747 flight. After taking his seat, he had a problem fastening his seat belt. A f light attendant came over to buckle it, and kindly asked him: “Is this your first crossing, Sir?”