FIVE months since the coronavirus entered our country from foreign tourists, balikbayans and returning overseas Filipino workers, the government seems to be waving the flag of surrender on mass testing. The Interagency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases plans to pass this undertaking to the private sector.
We are alarmed by this seeming surrender. Instead of inspiring confidence and hope, the IATF is now saying the government is powerless to conduct mass testing. It could also be saying that when the vaccine does become available, it could also be just as powerless.
We hope the task force changes its position. If mass testing is relegated to private companies, surely there would be cash-out payments and majority of population who are poor won’t be able to afford it. Majority of the population not knowing their COVID status is an existential threat to the whole country.
Rep. Lawrence Fortun of Agusan del Norte has a sensible suggestion. PhilHealth could shoulder 100 percent the COVID-19 testing of the poor; for the employed, 50 percent subsidized by PhilHealth, 25 percent shouldered by employers and 25 percent shouldered by employees.
If the IATF will stay on this path of abdicating COVID-19 mass testing to the private sector, then vaccinating everyone when the COVID-19 vaccines are finally available could very well be also become a private sector enterprise, to the detriment of the poor, low, and lower-middle-income families.
While we commend the significant efforts of the IATF, we also recognize the lack of fresh inputs from the outside looking in. The task force needs fresh perspectives to avoid tunnel vision from setting in.
Perhaps it is high time for the membership of the IATF to be expanded. The country has a wealth of experts and brilliant minds waiting only to be tapped.
Why is testing important?
Let’s hear it from the World Health Organization: “To suppress and control epidemics, countries must isolate, test, treat and trace. If they don’t, transmission chains can continue at a low level, then resurge once physical distancing measures are lifted. Isolating, testing and treating every suspected case, and tracing every contact, must be the backbone of the response in every country. This is the best hope of preventing widespread community transmission.”
